Sitting Pretty

9x12 Pastel on Canson

This is one of the one hour sketches finished. The sketch itself looked like a puppy and considering I was suppose to drawing an adult, I went back in and fixed it. Another 1 hour to do that.  Generally the lower jaw was too small.  Lots of other little things.

Here is the one hour sketch

RIley smiling

8x10 pastel on canson

My 2nd offering today for the one hour sketches that I would like to get done daily. This is Riley as a big boy, I went over by 5mins again for a touch up.

Casie on Red Stripped Towel

8x10 Pastel on Canson- smooth side

Another 1 hour study from yesterday I didn't get the photo because the battery died. This is Casie our tinest cat in the house. She stays mainly upstairs, not liking company or the dog. I have a little timer that I set for an hour, but I noticed that I forgot whiskers and her nose looked strange. So I need to add on another 5 minutes.

I'm going to try to get atleast 1 one hour sketch out a day before I start in on other paintings.

RIley Pup

9x12 Pastel on canson

I had a little time today to do a 1 hour sketch. I really should be doing them more often, but its been ignored lately. I'm glad I did because it, the sketch reminds of the its importance Getting the quick broad gestures down, cuts all the tiny mark making and really plays a big importance in understanding value. You have to block in your values and then layer. This is my pup Riley looking all innocent and stuff.

lil piggies

11x14 on canson nupastels
I thought I would try a different subject using the cross hatching strokes, and this is what I came up with. It was about an hour and I had a great time doing it.

Beautiful Bloosom

Ahhh Im finally back and painting again. This is Bloosom one of our egg layers, she has a twin Daisy they always seem to get into trouble. Thier eggs are a pale peachy/tan and are Xlarge. Fat, they are fat chickens! Guess they need to be to lay such big eggs.
This is 13.5x10.5" on watercolor paper covered with clear colorfix primer. The underpainting was an old watercolor of a rooster I did many years ago that was pretty messed up in proportion sizes. I think next I will address the ground a bit more and add to the background some sky blues. She needs some highlights on feathers here and there and on her eye.

Nosy Gala WIP finish

Finished finally! Here is my crazy big headed (on purpose) painting of Gala. In real life its much better than the photo, correcting digital camera photos is not an extact science. I was hoping to achieve just a fun piece, cartoonish, to bring some personality to a simple dog painting.

Nosy Gala

Another installment of Nosy Gala. Things have been busy at home this week. I shrunk the ball down to increase the feeling of a really big head. Added more lights and darks into the trees. Worked more on her nose that was off. Generally added more medium and darks thoughout her face. Now I need to bring in highlights to show the where the sun is shinning on her more. Then decided on whether grass will come in with strokes.

Nosy Gala WIP

Here I am at todays stopping point.....really crazy looking! Gotta fix things but this is generally the color scheme.

Nosy Gala WIP

Another doggie painting from a photo supplied by a friend. This is Kim's dog Gala a beauty, and a halarious photo of her that I just couldn't pass up.
Watercolor paper primed with clear colorfix primer with a watercolor underpainting. It got alittle crazy as I dropped red paint by mistake onto my yellow background, and being an artist started playing around forgetting that it was an underpainting.
13.5x10.5"

Corgi WIP

Here I am at about 3 hours after start. Had to move the eyes back and make them smaller, elongate the snout and tongue. Now i will let it sit for the night and go in and fix anything I need to tomorrow.

corgi WIP

1st layer of pastel, laying down oranges for the under tones in his fur.

Corgi WIP

Another underpainting done with watercolors on watercolor paper primed with colorfix primer. It is 10x8. I painting almost everything with cool colors on the colorwheel as this painting when done will be mostly warm.

Collie in the leaves

I fiddled around abit more with the collie...I'm done now! I think he stands out from the background a little bit more.

Pugnacous Pug

New name thought it fit better. This is my final unless something screams at me later. I still give alittle giggle every time I see his face! If he were my dog he would probably be the size of an elephant because he pouts pretty well...ok one more treat! Thanks for looking.

Pug Pout 3 WIP

Still working on my pug this is as far as I will get today. I inlarged his face from the eyes down and added lots more layers.

Pug Pout WIP

Here is the next stage with colors that are closer to the subjects real life coloring. This is the point where I go in and make sure that my orignal drawing is correct. The next stage will to try and make it pop out 3-D....atleast hoping I do!

Pug Pout WIP

its is 7.5x9.5"
Here is my next doggie....I really liking the pet portrait thing.... he has such a stubborn look to his face I had to try my hand at him next! This is the underpainting on watercolor paper with colorfix primer ontop for "tooth". Watercolors for the blocking. Looks really strange at this stage, what I'm doing is laying down colors that with pop through the top pastel layers giving it another layer of opticle mixing.

Collie in the leaves WIP

Here is my third pass at getting the collie to sit pretty in the leaves. I changed the placement of both eyes our right alot higher. The mouth/tongue needed to get larger and move to the left. His back went higher to get him to be more solid in body. I'm still struggling along with him.

collie in the leaves

10x14"
Here is a Collie sitting in the fall leaves, depicting leaves is alot harder than I thought it would be. I really struggled with this trying to get the background to recede. I may go back in a fiddle with a few things, but I will let it sit a few days.