I’ve been painting ice cream cones in a wide range of sizes for probably at least six years, maybe longer. Dozens and dozens of ice cream cones. I’ve learned a lot, I’ve adjusted my technique, I’ve aimed for greater realism and yet simultaneously a more painterly approach (which really can only be appreciated in person). But when I decided to tackle the largest ice cream cone I’ve ever painted — 5 feet by 4 feet — I was unprepared for exactly how challenging it would be.
Let’s start with my painting technique and the additional challenges posed when I go big…I mean really big. I paint everything — every tiny mark– with very very small faux sable watercolor brushes. I also paint everything in lots and lots of layers. This is partly because I work in acrylics, but it also does several things for my work. First, it makes it much more complex in terms of mark-making and viewing. The translucent layers of paint interact with each other, creating colors that cannot be directly mixed and implied textures (all the painting are very flat, mind you) help to build the high degree of realism — almost to the point of illusion — of the painting looking three-dimensional.
What does that mean? Essentially, it means that I paint every painting from start to finish multiple times because every part has multiple layers. Have you ever seen those wonderful videos of artists working in big swaths of paint and equally large brushes, moving gracefully from left to right on their painting surfaces? Sorry, that’s not me. My painting approach is intense, constant, even aggressive. I build my paintings from back to front, almost like a flat sculpture (if that makes sense), building thin translucent layer over thin translucent layer. They end up flat, but they look so dimensional. Most of my very very big paintings take minimally 100 hours, with some up to 400 hours, of constant mark-making and layering to get the effects for which I’m aiming.
For this painting, I had ordered my largest panel ever, from a custom panel manufacturer in New York CIty, and it sat there for a long time without me touching it — maybe a year or more. The panel itself had cost me quite a bit, and it was so big, I needed to figure out what I felt would be the best choice for a subject.
I was heavy into painting my ice cream series, and I was planning out some new smaller pieces. When I do this, I may begin with some sketched out ideas, but usually for the ice cream, I just start with a freezer full of flavors and begin scooping. I always work from my own photographs, so I’ll often take dozens and sometimes hundreds of photos in a day as potential references, then spend hours sorting through them and editing them until I arrive at a few that I think will work for my paintings.
I had picked up a half-gallon of Fudge Ripple and scooped out a bunch of different cones to photograph. I was lucky to get a few references that seemed especially good. I turned these into the paintings “Chocolate Triple Scoop,” 24″ x 12″, and “Fudge Ripple,” 16″ x 12″. But I had this one extra photo that I thought was good, but it would never work in a small format — too much wonderful detail. Could this be the one for that giant panel?
I decided to go for it. I started painting and then…the shear size of the piece began to overwhelm me. This panel was nearly twice the size of others I’d done. That might not sound so bad on paper, but in person, with the way that I paint, it began to feel impossible.
I set it aside for a bit. I’d come back to it now and then, then set it aside again. It just felt like too much.
Attempt Number 2
When I ship large paintings to my gallery, Hidell Brooks, I usually have to use a specialized shipper. They are fairly expensive, and they often require far advance notice of their pickups. I decided to paint two other large ice cream panels and push myself to finish the Giant Fudge Ripple. I painted constantly between the three, lots of late nights, almost no days off (I’m a crazy hard worker), but in the end…I just couldn’t do it. I finished the other two, and the poor Giant Fudge Ripple missed my shipping deadline and sat there…for another year.
No Light in Sight
I would look at it almost every day. It was difficult to see the light at the end of the tunnel. It was about 80 percent of the way finished, and when my paintings are at that point, all of the base parts are there, but it can sometimes be hard to see how to get it to the finish line.
In 2025, I began working on my new show for Hidell Brooks, scheduled for March 2026, featuring my new Cookie Landscape paintings, and I had one other large panel — a 36″ x 48″ one — that had been sitting unused in my studio. Maybe, just maybe, I could tackle a large cookie painting, finish the Giant Fudge Ripple, and ship them at the same time. When the Fall season rolled around, I decided to just do it.
Finishing the Painting
This time, I was going to make it. I was determined. I was driven. I was also short on time. The large cookie painting, “Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood,” was incredibly complex and filled with details. I loved it, but I had probably built a model that was so complex, it was very possibly impossible to paint. I had six weeks, seven if I stretched it, to make the shipping deadline and these pieces to Hidell Brooks in time for framing for my March 2026 show.
@kimtestoneartist Callling it done…Fudge Ripple, acrylic on panel, 5 feet tall by 4 feet wide. This will be available at Hidell Brooks Gallery in Charlotte, North Carolina soon! For anyone who wants to know, I use lots of layers and a sort of roughed up brush stippling technique to paint the textures, so here two brushes, one to apply the paint and the other to soften it a bit. On to finishing my giant gingerbread neighborhood painting! Happy holidays! Thanks for watching! #artistsoftiktok #realisticpainting #paintingprocess #acrylicpainting #painting ♬ 2 Little 2 Late – Levi & Mario
So what did I do? I worked morning to night seven days a week. I painted and painted and painted and painted. In reality, only about a week of that, spread out, went to the Fudge Ripple, but it was a very important week. I was able to take the painting from something that just looked okay, to something that looks kind of astoundingly real in person, if I do say so myself!
Was it worth it? Absolutely. I think I made two amazing paintings under an extremely tight deadline and was immersed in so much painting time it was crazy. I have known a lot of artists in my day, and I’ve worked through some pretty intense painting periods. But I’ve never had an experience quite like this: finishing the largest painting I’ve ever done (“Giant Fudge Ripple”) and the most complicated painting I’ve ever done (“Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood”) in seven weeks.
I hope you get a chance to see them in person some day! Maybe at my March show at Hidell Brooks!
Will I paint pieces as ambitious as these two again? I’m honestly not sure. I hope so, but today, all I can say is I am glad I did it this time. I feel like I created two pretty amazing giant happy paintings, and maybe that makes the world just a little bit better than it was before they got here.
Back to painting!
Kim T.
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