You might want to look at these in the category view so you can see the differences without scrolling much.

You can see the differences between this one and the last around his muzzle. I deepened the shadows in his left ear and started working on his right ear a little bit, but with the way his ear hair curls up over his left ear, I have to finish his left ear first. (It will be dry tomorrow.)

I’ve been working on Rusty, and thought I’d share the work in progress. I’m still nowhere near finished with him, but wanted to point out some differences between his underpainting and what I’ve been working on.

You can see from the underpainting that there are obviously none of the final details. The way I work my portraits are such that the first layer of color is a basecoat, and they are the deepest colors that I can see on the photograph I’m working from. On the current work in progress shot, I’ve only worked on his neck behind his ear, the top of his head, I’ve roughed in more of his eye, darkened his nose and layered the next coat of fur around his eyes and muzzle. I haven’t even touched his ear from before, so you can see the difference between what I’ve worked on, and what will be getting another layer of paint. (Actually, there will be two more layers of paint before he’s finished.)

Anyway, I’ve been suffering from a large artistic block, and I’m trying to work through it. They happen, not very often but they do. I motivated myself a little bit today after picking up a new chair from Dick Blick, and praying like crazy before I cranked the tunes in the studio.

I am not working on webcam, sorry folks.

I just finished Rusty’s underpainting. I’ll be completing this portrait tomorrow! BTW, here is what he will look like when he’s completed.

And in your spare time, watch this: Flash Sketch of a Woman

It is incredible.

So far this morning I’ve varnished my Lion painting (you will see scan details soon!), done a load of laundry, made scrambled eggs for Chickiemonkey and sunnyside-uppers for Caitibug, loaded and started the dishwasher, took out the trash and Swiffered the floors. Then, since I had 5 minutes left before the Bug took off for school, I decided I had plenty of time to work up the background on Rusty! An hour later…

I’ve sketched out my next painting, meet Rusty! He’s a sweet cocker spaniel who enjoys lying on the couch and knits his own cozy winter sweaters in his free time. I’ll be painting his roomie when his portrait is finished, you’ll see her next week. Rusty is on a 12×12 gallery wrapped canvas; can you guess what his background color will be?

I’ll paint his background tomorrow morning and while that’s drying I can get everything else scanned, packed & shipped.

Here’s Riley’s final scan & a nice detail image – a closeup on his face, I love his eyes!!

Riley’s done! Riley’s done! 16×20, big fella he is, yup. Scan and stuff forthcoming…

I’ve gotta stop for the night now, this is the progress on Riley. I was really hoping to finish him tonight, but that’s just not going to happen. If I hit the hay now, I can get up early and get him done, and then continue on with the Macaws. The birds probably need more drying time anyway.

My goal for tonight was to get this underpainting completed, and voila, done. I would like to finish this portrait tomorrow, but won’t even be able to begin working on him again until this layer is dry which will be around 1-2PM tomorrow afternoon. (Note to Riley’s dad, please let me know if the bed color is correct, the photograph was a toss up between drab olive and taupe plaid.)