Chris Osborne Art 
Squirtle
The Story Behind the Painting
My cousin asked me if I could paint his girlfriends pet turtle for Christmas. Normally with two upcoming exhibitions to get ready for I would have said no, but it was my cousin so I said yes. Now since it’s a surprise I can’t post this until after Christmas. I was so mean I rejected the first set of photos I asked my cousin to make sure you get down low and have the turtle facing you not away from you.
Now I always try to make things look a little natural so I went down to our local dam and photographed a few shots near the edge of the water. I was after a bit of mud, gravel and some reeds and this is a shot I was happy with.
My Painting Process
A few weeks ago I bought an Apple Pencil & Procreate software, so I thought I better put them to work and earn me some money.
I imported both photos into procreate and removed all the background from around the turtle. This revealed the photo of the dam underneath, I then erased the top half of the dam photo creating a nice black background.
On a separate layer I then painted some water, weeds, reeds and a few twigs, this now gave me a good reference image to work off.
I truly think the Apple Pencil and procreate were a good investment and a nice design tool to help create a scene.
Stage 1.
Background and foreground undercoat.
Stage 2.
Undercoat for the turtle
Stage 3.
All the fine details of the shell and undercoats took me all day to paint because of so many layers and I love my detail.
Stage 4.
I worked on the face, neck, underside of the shell and the left leg.
Stage 5.
Next I painted the right hand side of the leg and this is where about 8hrs disappeared too.
Finished Artwork.
Another day and I finished the last visible leg and then moved onto the turtles environment. This is probably my favourite part as there is less pressure to get things right.
You just start painting randomly, and see where your brush strokes take you. A few lines become twigs, grass. A few dots and splashes become rocks, then you just keep filling in the spaces.
Framed Artwork sent off to Santa at the North Pole.
Complete with hidden initials J A and a few extra J’s and L’s just to make it a little more fun.
Squirtle is the envy of all the other turtles with its portrait hung above the tank.
I think this has to be the best photo I have received from the owners of my paintings.
Gouache on Canson Paper
For my Black Label collection I use Winsor & Newton Gouache on Black Colourfix Art Spectrum Paper or Black Mi-Teintes Touch Canson Paper.
My painting come from my own experiences that I have photographed while traveling. By reading this blog, you as a viewer can now hear The Story Behind the Painting. Where, when, what was happening while I was photographing the wildlife.
Enjoy, Chris Osborne
Chris Osborne Art 
This looks amazing. Well done!
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Thank you and merry Christmas to you
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You did a marvelous job of creating the natural background for the turtle!
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Thank you, it good to experiment with new techniques and using the iPad and procreate worked well
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Love it Chris!! It’s just perfect!!
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Thank you
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