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.