Forest Fawns

One of my favorite paintings from last year is shown below. This had a lot of acrylic prep painting prior to the wet on wet oil paint. The acrylic prep included the deer painted on with brushes and the background leaf canopy sponged on. It gave a very flat and dull scene. But that's the plan. After the acrylic was dry, the deer were masked and the oil painting started with green and yellow glaze to give color but also retain the depth from the acrylic undertones. The sunbeams were a first for me. Once all the oil painting was done, the masking tape was removed from the deer and they were lightly scrubbed with an oil glaze to give a bit of color.

This was done on a stretched canvas which was 12x16. Instead of masking a frame, I painted completely around the sides gets to "wrap" the painting around all four edges.

Acrylics used for canopy: summer forest green and black gesso. (sponge) moon blue for background birch trees (small flat brush)
Acrylics used for deer: black and white gesso (applied with small flat brush and detail liner)
Oil paint for background: sap green, cadmium yellow hue, and titanium white. (2" scenery brush for canopy and ground cover. Fan brush for sunbeams, with mop brush to draw out.
Oil paint for birch trees: ivory black and cerulean blue. (small flat brush and painting trowel knife) titanium white for extra highlights. (painting trowel knife)
Oil paint for deer: van dyke brown and titanium white. (small flat brush and detail liner)