this is a technique I first saw online a few years ago and always wanted to try... after rediscovering it last week on deviant art I decided to try and teach myself this new medium.
Pioneered by Japanese artists, the technique entails painting an animal in layers of resin to create a 3d image.
Finished products:
Here are some WIP shots of my favorite one, the turtle
These 3 paintings together, working on them in stages, took me the entire week (I got the whole week off for snow here in Kentucky so it worked out well actually).
Each layer consists of pouring in resin, letting it cure, then painting a layer of the animal from the bottom up. Starting with the bottom most feet or fins.
Once the paint dries you pour a thin layer on top of that and paint another section... so on and so forth until you have the whole animal painted.
The result is a 3d image built from layers of 2d paintings inside the resin. The resin takes 12 hours to cure, so this takes some patience and planning to get it right. For my first ever attempt at this I think it turned out fantastic.
If you are interested in this technique and this artform I suggest you google "resin fish painting" and check out some of the amazing work done by the Japanese artists looks like.
(also, proof that I am not just a star wars nerd... lol. I have many facets to my many hobbies)