I've always thought one of the hardest parts of a painting is STARTING a painting... at each new step you get that feeling like "oh boy... is THIS where I screw it all up?" I wonder if that feeling ever goes away... well anyway, every since I started painting on a Burnt Sienna background that initial "OH GOD blank canvas fright" is gone, so that is nice...but there are still hesitations as I go along.
I keep learning more and more about whites and how NOT white white can be and still appear white. This white you see here was really an ice blue. I was excited to add the warm whites later and see what kind of effect it had on the cool whites.
My next challenge was the tongue. I had never painted a tongue before and for some reason it had me perplexed. It was so funny how MUCH research I did on this... between Google and my art forums... and I was still stuck. You can see here how I started the part in sun, but I couldn't figure out how to get that shadow. So after all of my research I just decided to call it quits for the night (this was probably 8-9 hours in at this point). I sat back on my couch, put my paints away and got myself a snack, put my feet up and watched some TV. (hubs took the kids upstate for me for the weekend I had the whole house to myself!!! He's the BEST) As I glanced over at my painting over in the corner of the room in the shadows during a commercial, it CLICKED! DUH!! Just paint the tongue the same as the rest of the darn painting dummy!! Work an underpainting and layer up!! The pinkness of the tongue threw me for a loop thinking this was something so different, when in reality it wasn't... it was just a different color! It took stepping away and seeing it at a distance with a new set of eyes to figure it out!! Sometimes Google ISNT the answer, a break and some BBQ Fritos are!! haha
It worked! I was happy with how the tongue and mouth in general were coming out, and I was in LOVE with this bright sky blue!
You can tell by the yellowness of this picture that I was burning the midnight oil. I decided to jump in and work on the collar before bed. It was a nice departure from all of the brown and white & I was happy with how it came out...now I was off to BED with close to 18 or 19 hours in at this point.
Somewhere I lost my photo in-between the last photo and the final.... Oh well. If you look at the back of Bailey you can see where the warm white met the cool white in the shadows. That part was exciting for me, since it was such stark line and such a big difference in the whites on my pallet. Next time I'll have to take some pics of my pallet colors too.
Not sure if anyone reads these, but its fun for me to journal my progress and keep these things in mind for my next paintings.
Next up is ANOTHER dog Bailey, I should be starting it tonight or tomorrow. Im excited to see the challenges it will bring!
Thanks for reading!
Not sure if anyone reads these, but its fun for me to journal my progress and keep these things in mind for my next paintings.
Next up is ANOTHER dog Bailey, I should be starting it tonight or tomorrow. Im excited to see the challenges it will bring!
Thanks for reading!