Amdall Gallery

This oil painting of a skeleton pirate was a commission earlier in the year (or maybe it was even at the end of 2024) that I thoroughly enjoyed. I tend to stick with specific themes and subjects, mostly in alignment with both things I enjoy creating and specific concepts I want to practice and improve upon. So, most of my paintings are alla prima portraits of people, often head and shoulders views or figurative poses. But this commission was a more unique, inspired concept! The client specifically wanted a skeleton painting, in keeping with a theme of art she collects. I thought a skeleton pirate would be cool, and she was intrigued – so off I went on this fun twist.

Although the painting itself was some months ago, the timing is kind of nice to share this. The fall season has arrived (even though it’s still quite warm in Texas), and Halloween will be here before we know it! So I thought it would be good to share this one. This portrait study was painted on 12 X 12 oil paper and was my 242nd overall. I’ll follow my standard format here, which is to share an image of the painting, the Instagram time lapse, and some verbiage specific to the piece. Then, I’ll embed the YouTube discussion video, including another brief writeup on the topic, materials used, and some other hopefully useful information. I’ll wrap the post up by sharing the YT Shorts time lapse and some other similar painting videos.

I think this pirate skeleton turned out really well, and the client who commissioned it seemed to be very happy with it. I am a bit neurotic when it comes to my own perceptions of my artwork, so sometimes self-doubt creeps in when I turn over a commissioned piece. But with this one, I definitely felt more confidence and think the final painting was well received. I’m honestly a bit surprised the skeleton’s skull worked out, as I’d never painted one before. The colors weren’t overly complex though (mostly umbers, ochre, and titanium white) and, since I’ve painted so many normal heads, I’m definitely used to the structure. At the time, I was very much in a “painting the ocean” phase, so the background was something I was getting repetitions with as well. There’s just something relaxing about painting water.

Some other topics explored in the embedded video: More on the similar facial structure, and how painting so many people made the skull a logical exercise with common approaches. The video itself explores more on facial anatomy and how the portrait approach was similar to so many I’ve done before, despite being such a different looking subject.

Here are some additional details of the video I shared on YouTube, including materials used and some other information. I’ll also embed the Shorts video, although it’s kind of redundant to the Instagram Reels post, as I typically just share the same edited vertical time lapse on both platforms. The main video I’ve embedded is around the usual amount, and is similar in format and presentation to some of the others I’ve done (also linked after the timestamps).