Being a Detective | Oil Painting + Chat

Today I’m doing a loose 4-ish hour timelapsed oil still life and talking about how asking questions before starting a painting is a bit like being a detective: gathering info to piece together a story that can help solve some composition mysteries.
It’s also my birthday! :) So today’s painting and chat was inspired by those murder mystery parties my friends and I had as kids...
My Gear + Materials:
Surface: 9x12 inch Ampersand Value Series hardboard panel
Easel: Sienna Craftech Large Pochade Box
Oil paint brands: Sennelier, Winsor & Newton, Daniel Smith, Williamsburg, Rembrandt, and Gamblin
Medium: Liquin
Brushes: Blick Masterstroke and Daniel Smith (mostly filberts, the smaller ones are rounds)
Full gear list coming soon on sheppard-arts.com
QotV:
“If you’re working on an illustration and there’s some part of it that isn’t interesting to you, and you’re at risk of neglecting it out of boredom, here’s what you do- you tell it to GET A JOB.”
Website: www.sheppard-arts.com
Instagram: @sheppardarts
Music by me
Love + Thanks again to all my viewers and subscribers!

[@AhmedAldoori]

This is so brilliant!

[@hamsterfay]

I've never seen anyone approach their work in such a considerate way as you. You're really the kind of artist I hope to become someday! Such an inspiration to hear you talk! Thank you for the incredible videos.

[@wafaawafi4627]

I can not stop thinking about the splendor of the sound you have because my sense of brilliance is constant and constant with every word spoken by your lips and I feel that this feeling drowns me whenever I get a laugh from your laughter that I can not describe what to do with me. I follow the video and I know everything you do in the painting and repeat Watch a few times not to see what you are painting, but to listen and sense your voice

[@SamReevesWrites]

Using the hands of the clock to lead the view's eye is brilliant.

[@lotusnevermore2279]

Dude, I'd like to hang out in your prop closet- all those things are amazing! I'm a big fan of the vintage/Victorian aesthetic. The composition tips and painting itself were awesome as well. I really like the story you put behind it. Happy Birthday!

[@catherinedicaire5753]

Oh my! Happy Birthday 🎂 As a gift, I have a compliment for you : I love your speaking voice, so full of life and expression. It's hard to make a video and talking for so long and not bored the viewers, but you seems to have a natural talent that make us listen carefully to every word you say! Have a good day (and I love that piece, funny that I'm playing one of Sherlock Holmes games in the same time. The mood matches!)

[@SheppardArts]

After struggling with public speaking for a long long time, that is great to hear! :) Thanks for the birthday wishes too, and have fun being Sherlock

[@artisticmuses]

Not only a wonderful artist, but a wonderful story teller. I think you should do some writing too. I just subscribed to your channel. Truly you ARE one of a kind in this KZbin world.

[@SheppardArts]

That's very kind of you, thank you!

[@kendahkem5279]

Happy birthday! Beautiful painting!

[@Audsinnes]

Happy birthday. Thanks for sharing the 'building a story' around the painting. I am guilty of grading backgrounds and realise now that that is probably why I am not really enamoured with the final product in spite of the good focal point.. I shall practice your practice. Thanks again.

[@daletoons541]

Another excellent video and Happy Birthday! :)

[@SmillyDonut]

I love your discussion on composition and how detailed your explanations of your arrangment complemeted the discussion. I felt like I got some good pointers in this video.

[@jalopy2222]

Happy Birthday! Fantastic advice and awesome painting! I'm just starting out with painting, but I often just go for an image that feels right or catches my eye. But lately I have been thinking about ways that I can involve narrative into my paintings as a next step as an artist. I really like the advice you gave and I'm gonna try it on the next painting! Thanks so much! Love your videos

[@aviaja2008]

I am guilty when I say I am sometimes looking for specific art lessons and suddenly I am stumbling over a personality that makes art so much more fun and interesting, I almost forgot what it was I was searching for. Thank you :)

[@eyeyeye-fm9oo]

I recently discovered your channel and have been watching one video before bed each night and I just wanted to thank you for them. Really enjoying your insights

[@bamajama13]

Happy Birthday Cynthia! Hope it's a great one for ya :)

[@abigbat]

this is so fun. Happy birthday!

[@elenavid5222]

Happy Birthday, Cynthia! Love your story behind the still life

[@lsenchuk]

What a really cool idea to make a narrative with any subject to engage yourself more in the process. I will be doing this from now on.

[@redbird1928]

I think this has to be my favorite video of yours. Thank you for sharing your thought process. I love still lifes with personality. :D

[@ronnepony]

I followed this channel two years ago in the hope that the wonderful artist would upload again, and ive gotta say that i am really loving the new video's so much!

[@didisaster]

Happy birthday! I really like playing your videos while I work myself since I find them very relaxing and motivating. The murder mystery concept was very charming and I loved the palette you used! Thankyou for posting on ur birthday we all appreciate the work!

[@nicholassutherland5093]

I think Cynthia and Liquin are dating!😲

[@tameratabor4034]

Happy Birthday! Thank you for the lovely work and the very inspiring videos!

[@twaolet]

HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[@jeffkelly2793]

Happy birthday. Hope you had an beautiful day. You are an awesome artist.

[@TartantazCreates]

Happy Birthday. Thank you for this video it has really inspired me to consider my story with my next painting project. 😊

[@kapsican]

I love how frequent your uploads have become and I am so happy I found you in time! Really looking forward to your videos all the time, super excited! Also: Happy Birthday! :D

[@Lisa-qt7pw]

I love the story behind this still life! Very captivating and I totally understood what you were trying to convey

[@kristisidlauskas9204]

Best advise I've heard in a long time! Thank you and Happy Birthday!!

[@Ydla]

Belated happy birthday, Cynthia. :) Man I'm too guilty of paying too much attention on one part of the painting that I end up mucking up the rest!

[@usernpj]

Wonderful, as always. And happy birthday! Greetings from Brazil.

[@grenader6409]

Happy Birthday Cynthia! Great idea with the composition, I like warm colors and materials rendering too.

[@memorandom7484]

Happy Birthday! Loving your videos, they've encouraged me to get back into painting again after a very long dry spell, so thank you for the inspiration. :).

[@veaudor]

Happy Birthday! And, thank you for the wonderful insights into your process.

[@cathrinehelle4057]

Happy birthday Cynthia 🎉

[@juliavasylieva5090]

Happy Birthday! Thank you for inspiration! =)

[@moogiemay]

Happy Birthday! You have been an inspiration to me for a while so it's very exciting to see you create more videos.

[@DestinyFineArt]

Woooow I am an artist and you inspired me to make art tutorials too! I hope the art community can benefit and learn from my videos like how you inspired others! Love Destiny ❤️❤️

[@Monkey-fv2km]

We'll then, happy birthday, it's mine tomorrow! Love your videos, very professional, great production value. It's always great to get a glimpse of how another artist works.

[@SheppardArts]

TheBrushMonkey happy early birthday!

[@daveallen1603]

Happy Birthday!

[@janetyu1500]

ahhh happy birthday!!! I love your work so much - all your paintings and videos and artwork give me so much life! Hope you had a wonderful day~

[@dovenart7546]

Happy Birthday! The still life looks absolutely amazing! I love the story you came up with

[@damiancieslicki4038]

Happy Birthday, and thank you for this video. Today it's my third sobriety anniversary, you reminded me of this :)

[@keppikong]

happy birthday

[@valentinanguyen5558]

This channel is an absolute gem. Saw someone share it on Facebook and had to check it out. I know I’m pretty late but hope you had a good birthday! And keep up the good content!

[@alansarmiento204]

happy birthday!!!

[@ronhochhalter3491]

Happy Birthday! Great video, learned a lot! Thanks

[@skylarmccready]

Loved this!! Happy Birthday

[@jk0897]

happy birthday! you're so good! it's daunting.

[@farahplans]

Aaah all of these videos are a goldmine of information. I’m so guilty of only focusing on the main subject and not caring enough about the supporting elements. Thank you so much for producing these, seriously! And happy birthday. ❤️

[@artist63]

Loved this! Happy birthday!

[@patlewis2067]

Happy Birthday! I love the videos

[@stefanie6491]

Wow this is a so well-made video! Great piece, awesome words u used, I liked how you explained things. Totally gonna subscribe

[@angelcabrera1021]

Happy Birthday !!💜

[@sky2333]

I’m always looking forward to watching your videos Cynthia! You’re such a great inspiration ❤️ Love all the way from Morocco

[@ivndraws]

Happy Birthday! :D

[@darlingddoll9742]

Awesome painting, I would love to see, in depth, how you tackle composition in your work. I'm trying to understand this myself, and most seem to go off of intuition.

[@akmal9460]

happy bday! ❤️❤️

[@martearty922]

Happy birthday! Oh wow, this really helped me! I really loved that tarzan piece btw!

[@williamgraf2566]

HAPPY BIRTHDAY! :)

[@RobertF-]

Happy Birthday, and great painting. That picture came out really good, but maybe introducing some small, quick flicks of blood red paint on to the gloves or table would really add some extra interest? Both visually, and psychologically? That kind of dovetails with my interest of combining bold brushwork involving flicking the paint, or dripping and/or splattering the paint in a realistic picture. Kind of combining abstract painting techniques with realistic picture making methods. Kind of a serious subject matter for a picture though, haha. Great channel and videos though. Take care.

[@sky2333]

YOU ARE A GENIUS. ❤️

[@ilonabrask9781]

ah your videos are so relaxing

[@gimmealargesalad]

Happy birthday!! I'm not sure if it's possible to gift you anything besides a night dedicated to pushing my storytelling elements more. Is that an okay gift? Hahahaha! I hope you had a fantastic one! It was very interesting to watch you paint this time. Mysteries are absolutely amazing(and addictive) and it showed an intriguing way to set up a composition. I'm most definitely going to try it to see how it works for me. Thanks again for these videos!

[@SheppardArts]

That is the best gift I could think of!

[@quritannn8989]

Love how you change from coffee to cake hahah

[@petrosstefanidis6396]

You helped me a lot!

[@milapesic8638]

I so got used to these Sunday videos!

[@PGMT22]

Hey cynthia! Loving your channel so far, its been very pleasant and insightful You mentioned in one of your videos how the camera lens distorts things in a certain way, and that you pull on your life drawing experiences to correct for that. I was wondering if you could elaborate on what it is you change or take into consideration when you paint from a photo, with that in mind. Possibly as a subject for a future video? :) Thanks!

[@darkcustomxxx7252]

Wow, brilliant job! You're so insightful and inspiring. Awesome compositional tips too. Happy Birthday from Australia, party like you stole it....!

[@SheppardArts]

If by party you mean eat way too much breakfast and work on lecture notes for an art school talk tomorrow, you bet I'm on it! :)

[@darkcustomxxx7252]

Try and sneak a few in for the team!....it might jazz up your artschool talk tomorrow.....!!!

[@MultiCastorFiber]

Your art kicks so much butt that it makes sitting down painful!

[@BlueNSour]

oh! happy birthday for a couple days ago!

[@RamblingsandRavings]

Rad video! (also late happy birthday) Can I ask: Why the three yellows? One prismatic and two earth? Thoughts on Naples v Ochre? Is it a cool/ warm difference, while still being both earthy? and B: ...why do you love Linquin so much...? Thanks much for posting these.

[@patrickcrowe1611]

ive always been taught that oil over gesso is not good. the oil will rot thru the gesso. i had a few paintings that i primed with gesso and sure enough the oil had indeed rotted thru the gesso and starting to rot the canvas. however it took 5 yrs to rot thru.

[@AnastasiaR]

You seem to resonate with the word “illustrator” much more deeply than other oil painters who are quicker to use the words “painter” or “artist” (which you also use). It’s very interesting to me. Why do you think that is? Is it because you value the storytelling aspect of painting rather than just the academic skill of it?

[@darkostojanovic6014]

Happy Birthday, Cynthia! And thank you for the videos, they are most useful and inspiring. :) Also, I have a quick question - how long do you wait before varnishing your paintings (is it still necessary to wait for 6 months when using liquin)?

[@SmillyDonut]

Darko Stojanovic If you use Gamblin's Gamvar varnish you only need to wait till the painting is dry to the touch before varnishing, regardless of what medium you use.

[@darkostojanovic6014]

Thank you, Maria! I'm located in Europe, so I'm mostly using Winsor&Newton and Schmincke brands, but I'll give Gamvar a try. It sounds just like the thing I need. :)

[@SmillyDonut]

Darko Stojanovic They don't sell Gamblin products where I live either, so I ordered a bottle online via Amazon. I hope it suits your needs if you can get your hands on a bottle.

[@darkostojanovic6014]

I asked my cousin from London to bring me a bottle of Gamvar, she'll be visiting in 10 days. I can't wait to try it out! :)

[@SmillyDonut]

Darko Stojanovic That's great. I hope you enjoy it. ☺

[@kurtisdiston4851]

#LEARNUARY

[@Xineohp37]

#PerspectiveMatters

[@cricat3776]

Are you becoming the bob ross of youtube?

[@theelizartt]

please put ads at the beginning of your videos! let us viewers help you make some extra money!

[@LillenArt2]

Happy Birthday!