My first oil painting finished Sunday sketch

Hi guys thought I'd post pics of my finished piece. Because it has been a work in progress from a sketch that I submitted to Sunday Sketches last week I thought I'd submit the finished piece to Sunday Sketches this week :0) As you can tell from my the photos in my last post, I did another layer of colours over my entire painting. After I let the painting dry enough I was able to paint more on top and I love how the oils pop! I think this piece turned out better than I expected and I really enjoyed doing it! Using oils made me slow down alot and think more about what I wanted to do as I couldn't be in a hurry with the drying time.

It's funny I realised this week that I really like the smell of the oil paints and that it brought back a few memories for me. My Bampi (granddad) used to paint in his spare time he was actually very talented but it was something that he used to do now and again when he retired. I think he could have done alot with his talent in another place and time. But I think back when he was growing up being artistic and creative wasn't as encouraged as it is today. Painting with oils reminde me of him :0)



I'm looking forward to doing more of these, I guess my only real problem with oils is the drying time, it's not very convenient to leave paintings out on your desk to dry for days on end. What do you guys who use oils do with your paintings  when you're finished? And how long do they tend to take to dry? My other thought was do I need to varnish it? I find with acrylic paint that varnishing helps make the colours pop alot more but I wasn't sure if I needed to do that with oils. Can you tell that I'm fumbling my way through this one? ;0) Hope you're all having a great weekend :0)