Doubling Down with Louis-Dog

Louis-Dog the first

Starting L-D the second - masking much less, and using  lighter touch on the eyes.

Underglaze of quin. pink and lavender [quin. pink and phthalo blue]  before starting the greys, made with  the pink, quin. burnt orange and indanthrone blue.

Here is the finished L-D the second. This is my preferred version; I think she looks younger, and dare I say, more vibrant. I also like the quieter background. Louis was painted as a gift from my riding instructor for her sister's birthday. When I had Rhonda over to take a look, she loved both versions [as did her sister], so they both were sent pout to Calgary. And I have many "free" riding lessons as payment.

I also FINALLY finished the last of the cat portraits, and they should be arriving at their home early next week.  [Apologies, the color is a bit washed out in this image.] I also added some whiskers using thinned down gesso.  I hate to say it, but this commission was an ordeal - took over two years from concept to completion. I had absolutely no desire to paint or draw - my aunt had cancer. I often read that one "should" draw, paint, create ALL the time. For me, that is just not feasible; if I paint when I'm down, I create garbage. Anyway ...

Thank you for dropping by!

A Portrait's Progress - the Young Lad in Watercolor

Since the last post, I added Jules' hoodie, done very loosely in a wet in wet wash of violet, orange and indanthrone. I didn't want it to attract too much attention, so used the violet colors of the background, and kept the values in the light to mid range. 

Several thin glazes were done to his face and neck with mixtures of aureolin, permanent rose and cobalt blue. The hat was thinly glazed with the background color, painted to give it a bit of shape and depth.

The fedora was then done in three segments, painted wet in wet with a black mixture made of orange, violet and indanthrone. I think I'm done. It doesn't look exactly like Julian, but it's a good rendering. I really like the contrast of the looseness and softness of the background with the detail and depth of the face and hat. I will put this aside to give a thought to doing a bit more to the sweatshirt where it is close to the face.

Thank you so much for dropping by!