I’ve completed a few more sketches for a few more paintings! You might be familiar with these three, Callie, Annie and Momo belong to Debbie. She’s keeping me in business with all this wonderful work she’s sending my way, first I painted these three in one portrait as a monochromatic oil painting – then she requested me through EWebscapes when she was ready for her new blog design, and now I get to paint these totally cool close up macros of her babies in full color!

I just adore the photos she chose for these portraits. All of them are 4″ x 4″ wrapped canvases, I’ll paint a solid color border on all three and then tackle layer upon layer of fur, in oils.

Aaah – the smell of oils will be strong in my studio over the next couple of weeks, and I’ll be as giddy as a girl in pigtails riding a new pink banana seat bike. Ching-ching!

Meet Baby Buffy, half bichon frise and half havanese, this cute little girl is stylin’ in her little red dress and pink collar. I’ll be painting her in oil on a 4″ x 4″ canvas. I sketched her up yesterday afternoon and will work on her within the next week or two.

I completed Titto’s portrait today. I would love to hand deliver it and give him a piece of string cheese and see if he gives me a cat call or something. Knowing his personality though, he’d probably just stare at his portrait, bob his head and say “pretty boy”. Which is just as rewarding, since he already admires himself in his other painting.

I’ll show you the scan after he’s dry.

Titto’s underpainting is finished, now when this is dry I’ll go over the piece again and enhance all of the colors and each of the feathers.

Titto’s background is complete and drying, very cool sap and olive green tones complimented with indigo, ochre and a creamy naples yellow will really set off his bright plumage. He’ll just pop right off of the canvas when I’m done.

I’ll work on his underpainting and show you another progress pic tomorrow.

Here’s the sketch for Titto’s second portrait. He’s such a gorgeous and colorful sun conure, his tailfeather spread has amazing bold gradients from lime green to deep blue, I’m excited to get to paint him again! I’ll work in his background this afternoon.

I plan to complete his portrait by the end of this week, so you’ll see more work in progress shots soon of his portrait as I paint him.

I just completed the lovely composition captured by Debbie of her three cats. This painting is 9×12 on gallery wrapped canvas, it’s a sepia toned monochromatic.

I did fade out the lace curtain in the background a bit, I thought too much detail would detract from the cats – the subtle lace in the foreground and impression of lace on that back curtain feels just right to me.

The digital pic of this painting isn’t entirely accurate, of course – the final scan is always so much more accurate to color, clarity and detail. I’ll capture a scan once it’s dry.

view painting progress

The underpainting is complete now, I’ll detail the curtains, window trim and of course the cats will all get another layer of fur before they’re finished.

I completed Callie’s underpainting today. My palette consists of titanium white, burnt umber, raw umber, indigo, flesh and naples yellow light. These colors will give this monochromatic portrait a nice warm sepia tone.