Working on Cathy’s Animal Garden – Enter at Your Own Risk was a great project, as my favorite thing to paint is animals (though I really enjoy the challenge of painting people, too). The story takes place in a garden full of “animals” — that is, plants with animal names. As Henry and Andy search through the garden for a lost baseball, they “see” all kinds of animals, including tigers and snakes — even elephants! Besides the imaginary animals, I also painted many small animals that you might find in a garden.

After thinking about my sketches, I decided the best medium to use would be oils — I would have time to blend the shadows and colors, and oils are very forgiving (I figured I would have to correct or change some things along the way).

Another consideration was all of the detailed flowers involved; this animal garden was, after all, a flower garden, and I wanted to make it bright and colorful. By using oils, I could paint the flowers in layers on top of a leafy green background rather than have to work around them. 

What, then, was I going to use as a painting surface? I wanted something flat and easy to handle, so stretched canvas wasn’t what I was looking for. After quite a bit of research and help through the art forums (WetCanvas.com and Ceninni), I settled on Arches 140 lb. cold press watercolor paper. 

Before I began to paint, I first enlarged my sketch to the rightsize. Then I transferred it onto the watercolor paper. Because oil paints will soak through the paper, I then applied a layer of acrylic gesso to it (purchased at my local arts and crafts store). This dried very quickly, and within a short while I could start painting.

The paints I used were from Studio Products, recommended to me by a friend on an email loop, and they are wonderful paints. The colors are so vibrant, and the texture so smooth.

I enjoyed working with the oils on paper so much through this project, that I painted the illustrations for As I Watch in oils, too!

Cathy’s Animal Garden – Enter at Your Own Risk became available in June 2010, and how neat it was to see the paintings in print!