I’m been working my wrist off in the studio this week! Elsie’s underpainting is complete now, and once this layer is dry I’ll start the next layer which will be painted wet-in-wet. She may get one more coat after the next one, to finish up her whiskers.

(View Elsie’s Painting Progress)

Cheeky’s portrait is done, cute little silvery baby reminds me of a persian – that soft fluffy fur and those gorgeous baby gray/green eyes. I’ll scan and post the final painting (along with the others I completed this week) when (they’re all) dry.

Willie’s portrait is complete (8×8 oil on canvas panel), he’s a gorgeous longhaired tuxedo – his eyes are stunning on this background. I’ll scan this painting when it’s dry and you’ll really be able to see his furry little details.

Very productive day in the studio, Guildenstern and Jean are both complete now as well, so all four Lovebird portraits are finished! I’ll scan them and show you details as soon as they’re dry.

I finished two of the four Lovebird portraits yesterday, Rosencrantz and Lionel. Much of the detail is lost in the digital photo, especially with the rosy plumage in their faces. Hopefully their eyes dry a little faster this time, they took several days to dry after that first layer. I don’t think I can wait that long to scan them, and I’m not sure my client can wait that long to receive them!

I’ll finish up the other two gals today.

I worked on Elsie for quite a while yesterday, basically just painting in her dark fur. I’ll wait now until this layer is dry before I paint her ears and her next coat of fur. I love this look though, it reminds me of pen and ink. If it weren’t for the smell of oils in my studio, you might think so looking at it, too. Every single brushstroke will give her portrait that much more dimension, and it’ll make the painting that much more interesting to view.

Elsie’s eyes nearly painted themselves yesterday afternoon. Usually when I work in the eyes and nose, I know when I finish the underpainting what I’ll need to do to complete them on the next layer. She’s different, though. She’s been staring at me through graphite just waiting for color.

This connection I feel toward her is going to result in a portrait that surprises even me, I’m sure of it.

I’ll finish up her underpainting today.

Cheeky’s underpainting is complete, this gorgeous fluffy kitty is getting his second portrait painted in a larger size (6×6 from 4×4), since momma liked the first one so much.

I’ll be working on one more underpainting today, so back to the studio I go!

Here’s Willie’s underpainting, in stages, as I progressed on his pretty tuxedo kitty cat self today.

The first thing I always complete is the background. There’s a hint of teal in his eyes and the whites of his fur, so I pulled that into the background to bring out his eyes more. I finished his background last weekend – but with everything else going on I hadn’t had a chance to show you that yet.

Today I began with his eyes, then nose – then ears. Then I stopped and giggled because that just looked silly – so there you have it. Silly tuxedo cat portrait in progress.

Stage two was getting the colored tones of his fur down. Blues, greens, reds and creamy tans are nice reflective colors on a black cat – they go down first. Then I went back and deepened just some of the darks – particularly his cheekbones and eyes. After I worked in all of the dark fur areas, I pulled medium shades into the white areas and will lighten that further with the next layer of oil.

And there you have it. I wanted to show you that second progress shot so you can really get a feel for how I paint fur. I literally paint one hair or very small groups of hairs at a time for the underpainting – and then I’ll paint probably two more layers of fur, more individually for more depth.