Hitting the UGLY Stage with a Vengeance!!! ... or ... Two Works in Progress

This is a lovely spot on one of my favorite trails in the park.

First w/w washes with phthalo green - blue shade and quin. violet.

Covered the bottom, and did some spattering.

Masked off some trees, and did some more spattering and direct painting on the wet paper.
This is one ugly ...

My handsome nephew, shaved with a scalplock, doing his samurai imitation.

First washes for shadows

Some color in the hair

I had earlier put some skin colors and shadows down, but it looked so anemic. I took the good old proverbial bull by the horns, and did a wet, runny application of a dark. We shall see what comes of it ...  Yes, this is the second "ugly". Seem to really need to be doing more experimentation right now.

Got to go ... farrier arrived to do Bruno's feet - finally!

Thank you for visiting! Your comments are always welcome. 

A Brief WIP and a Question

First washes were aureolin and two orange hues. Then I started going over those with a green mixture.

This was after the two complete washes.

I did another w/w wash with a much darker green.

Several glazes were done on the flower.

The first few glazes are done on the leaves.

I've posted about a third of the photos I've taken of this rose in progress.  I'm also working on another, the rose at a slightly different angle, and in predominantly cool colors. For a while, I have been thinking of creating an e-book, a short pamphlet of detailed and illustrated instructions on my technique of painting one subject. If it received a positive response, I would do more on other subjects, perhaps animal portraits and still life. My question is would any of you readers be interested in such a book? I have had requests to do a video, but my technique is slow, and would be about as interesting to watch as watching cement dry. I really would love to hear what you have to say about an e-book.

As always, your comments are most welcome! 

I Thought Mushrooms Would Be Easy ...

A photo I took while out walking recently

Working sketch

First [and scrapped] wash

Second time better

MANY more glazes on the shroomers


Initially, I was going to do a soft tree-ish background, but decided it would be too overwhelming for the simplicity of the mushrooms.  I did a very w/w wash of phthalo green mixed with quin. burnt orange, and added drops of aureolin. It was a bit hard to "control", but I think it turned out. The rest of the painting is, and will continue to be,  very thin glazes softened to almost nothing.  I lost all track of time this evening, so this is it for tonight. As ALWAYS, please leave a note if you have a question or comment.