In my previous post about traveling with oil paints, I mentioned I would share a DIY wet panel carrier tutorial, and here it is!  If you don’t use oil paints, you may wonder what a wet panel carrier is and why it’s necessary.  One of the wonderful things about oil paints is that they are slow-drying. This gives you a lot of time to blend and nudge the paint around, or even just scrape it off.  I find it’s even more forgiving than a pencil, which is one of the reasons I love working with oils. The downside of working with a slow-drying medium when traveling is that you now have a wet painting to transport home.  That is why artists who work with oil paints need a wet panel carrier.  I usually use premade wet panel cases from Raymar when I’m painting on the go, and they work great. 

After working on pet and animal portraits for most of this year, I decided to take a little break and paint some still life and landscapes.  First of all, I want the practice.  I don’t want to get rusty in those subjects, even though working on one kind of painting informs and often improves another.  These are also the most popular subjects for licensing, so I wanted to create some new works to submit and sell in my next original art sale.  I’ve been working on rural landscapes, oranges, and now irises.  While I’ve been painting, I set up my camera so I could make video tutorials for those who want to paint along.  So, here is a video tutorial on painting these white irises…   This painting is based on a photo I took while on a walk one morning this spring.  One of our neighbors keeps the prettiest