skull
Huzzah huzzah! My ‘Skull Reliquary II’ 3D oil painting I created just this last October is currently at a special invite-only art show at the d’Art Center in Norfolk, VA. The same venue where I won the second place award last year.
Here’s a lil vid I made of packing and shipping it off. Cheers to getting my artwork in front of more eyes!!
2.23.2023
It's certainly that 'dead but lively' time of year.. but who am I kidding? Every time of year is perfect for skull painting!!
Do you remember the Skull Trio I created back in 2020?
Well I had a blast creating them and obviously you all enjoyed them too because all three of them sold immediately and I sold a bunch of prints as well. Folks are still taking the Skillshare workshop I created sharing how to paint them too!
This series of skulls is quite different from the last one for a few reasons. Firstly they are much brighter in color. They come in three different sizes and positions, and they are painted in a diamond orientation rather than square. ( I feel like these ones are almost friendlier too in some way... or maybe that's just me being a weirdo - ha!)
The new skulls still have a great variety of dead things and dried plants, and of course, that lovely sparkly gold leaf within the acrylic resin. The 'expressions' on them definitely get a bit lively too.
After I finished filming this video I came up with the idea of calling these 3D bone depictions a 'Reliquary' series. If you're not familiar with the term, a reliquary is a fancy container for holding a relic (which is a physical piece of a holy person or saint). Even though these don't represent actual saints or what not from any religion, I still like the idea of conceptualizing the bones as special, holy, or sacred.
This is the smallest at 6” square and includes a stink bug exoskeleton, real dries plants and flowers and gold leaf flecks.
This is the middle size one measuring 8” square and includes real butterfly wings and plenty of dried plants and just a hint of gold leaf.
And the biggest one measures 10” square, has a stink bug, wasp, and a lizard skeleton. He’s got dried petals and leaves and features holographic rainbows beaming from the top of the skull. I think of this one as almost like a smiling deity :)
I have prints available of this skull set as well as the last skull set from 2020. Each high quality giclee print will be hand embellished with gold leaf, and be signed and numbered. I even wrap them in acetate with cardboard so they are ready to display right out of the package.
PS Do you love my Halloween costume this year??? Ha!
10.18.2022
Do you remember that trio of skulls I did a while back? They were some of my most popular prints n paintings and I really loved creating them, so I’ve often kicked around the idea of making more.
Somewhat spontaneously I acquired an anatomical skull just slightly smaller than in real life to use as a reference for more skull paintings. The material and accuracy was great, but I wasn’t really a fan of the color.
So I decided to give a glow up by actually making it look much older - ha!
I wanted the skull to have that antiquated, slightly mildewing, authentic bone aesthetic to try and mimic the real deal. It was my first time trying to age an object like that and it actually turned out better than I was expecting - Yay!
First I plugged up the sockets with cotton balls so they wouldn’t get too light colored inside. Then I sprayed a nice double layer of white primer, which was perfect for adhering the acrylic paint with a sponge.
It was a remarkably easy process and only took about 90 minutes - super fun and satisfying!
Before…
After
Stayed tuned for some more skull paintings coming soon, just in time for spooky season! Take a peek at the preparatory drawings for now 🙌
10.9.2022
We have a full sized skeleton in the anatomy classroom which is great for helping my students understand a little more clearly how the body moves. This week I had my students spend a class session drawing it this past week, and since it has been quite a while since I’ve had the opportunity to do so myself, I figured I would join them.
Of course I am always walking around the room, checking on folks’ drawings so I couldn’t get to the entire skeleton like I would have liked to, just the skull. I’m thinking of doing a video for my YouTube channel drawing the full skeleton just for fun. I would want to have it seated and maybe holding something, or at least have the head tilted in a way that looked in thought… I’m not yet sure exactly what I’d do, but I would want the skeleton positioning to look somewhat ‘lively’, not just stiffly standing there like a dry anatomical diagram.
But in the mean time, enjoy this lil skeleton shortie vid…
..and then enjoy a few of my student’s skeleton drawings too!
7.12.2022
Have you ever seen a parrot skull? I honestly hadn't til I found this royalty free image to paint from - it's so wild right??
Today I wanted to give you a few studio updates while I share the painting of this bird skull in oil. Namely, that I’m going to be running polls and questions in my Instagram Stories and on my YouTube community tab in order to get you know YOU, my lovely audience, better so that I can make the kind of artwork and videos that you love to see!
If you'd like to know more details about how I paint bones, check out this recent human skull painting workshop on my website or Skillshare, or catch the 3D process here on YouTube.
How to Paint a Skull in Oil:
https://gumroad.com/l/how-to-paint-a-skull-with-oil-paint
3D Skull Trio: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FLf_l1zV3E4
9.20.2020
Wow, my last skulls did so well, not only with tons of lovely folks commenting on my Instagram and Facebook, but by all three finding new homes super quick! I'm so humbled and excited that you all love them so much because I am having so much fun getting even weirder with some animal skulls now!!
This first one is a parrot; isn’t he wild! He’s got quite the attitude, amiright?!? And I really did not alter his brow in any way, he’s just got that natural glare - he almost looks like a mascot, ha!
THis next one is a large feline found all over North America, and it actually goes by many names such as cougar or mountain lions, but my favorite is puma. How majestic right? Although I would not want to run into those teeth at a campground!
I’m actually saving the best for last (this is a trio too!) but I’m not going to tell you til it’s finished. I’ll give one hint: it has horns, but each one is different. Hmmmmmm…??
10.21.2020
Yay folks my highly anticipated Skull Trio is complete, and not only that, but I’m going to use them to teach you how to paint a skull with acrylic or oil paint too! First we’ll draw a skull from a royalty free image I found to share with you, and then I’ll take you step-by-step through the skull painting process, from materials to paint mixes, to how to enrich our human skull painting from the reference image using an array of natural toned paint that will really breathe life into our skulls!
The abbreviated version that includes the resin pouring process is here on my YouTube, and at the bottom you can find a link to the extended Skillshare version that is almost an hour long and goes into way more specific technical detail.
You have two options to join! Find me on Skillshare or get access on my website for only $4
Real Time Skull Demo: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h9XSNCjh8Y4
How to Create a Shadowbox Frame: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XJcIFE__tlU
How to Create Resin Layer Art: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nxmP_I9gEvM
How to Make a Painting Panel + Transfer a Drawing: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0XozulwC3fM
8.30.2020
After the last bit of glue dried on the frames last night and I flipped this skull trio over this morning I was really struck by how I could actually see a bit of progress and improvement just between these three pieces.
I feel like in the first painting I got my form down, then in the second painting I was getting a little bit more confident with the colors, and by the third painting I had really found a lovely illuminating glow within the bone.
Okaaayy this is the last time you’ll see these skulls in their 2D format but if you’d like to get sneak peeks at all the creepy-crawleys that will be ensconced in resin with these skulls, make sure you’re checking in on my Stories on Instagram here @caleighbirdart.
8.6.2020
Living by this lake lately has been a real gift for pre-dried critters to enclose in my artwork. The more that I stay in Florida the more I see just how much wildlife is around here!
I can’t wait to get to the resin layering of my skull trio paintings!! I’m definitely going to be having fun with all these creepy crawlers…..
7.16.2020
You may have seen the live skull painting demo I did on YouTube a few weeks ago (if not it’s now listed as a ‘Real Time Skull Painting Demo’ in two parts), but that lively lil guy is actually just the first of three skulls I’m painting and will eventually layer with resin and some creepy crawlers or other found objects.
One of my favorite things about this process has been exploring all of the different earth toned hues that can actually be found in bones… far more than the basic grayscale one usually associates with bones. I’ve delighted in using a lot of sap green and a light pink-ish mauve color that has really brought these three skulls to life (ha! see what I did there??).
Enjoy these work-in-progress shots today and if you like checking out my painting process regularly, make sure to find me on Instagram where I’m constantly sharing paintings and drawings as they are created.
7.1.2020
