More Work in Progress

More Work in Progress 

Building the kitchen cupboards tired me more than I expected. I am still having afternoon naps so I haven’t been able to work on Bentley as much as I thought I would. But I am getting on well with the work I have done. His nose now has texture, dark hairs are positioned in his fur and I have started on his muzzle. I don’t use black. I used sepia overlaid with dark grey. 

I need to touch in lots of white hairs. He doesn’t really have those dark lines over his nose. They mark the shadows of the cute little puppy folds of skin. Once I have dragged some white, light grey and light beige fur over them they will look like folds and not stripes. 

First I am going to lay some pink skin on his muzzle. Then I will get out the white paint and work over all the fur on his nose to get the shading right. 

Five Portraits in Oils on Canvas

Five Portraits in Oils on Canvas

I haven’t been able to scan these Gypsy portraits because my house has been so untidy that the scanner was buried under clothes and kitchen rolls (unused of course) among other things. But recently I have put a lot of time into organising things to make my household easier to run so that I have more time and energy for painting. 

The scanner and printers are in my bedroom and I have moved a chest of drawers in there so I had somewhere to put the mess which was sitting on the scanner and the two printers. I am still moving things from one place to another but the bedroom is clear. I have moved my acryl gouache paints downstairs leaving just my coloured pencils next to my upstairs easel. 

So today I did a bit of scanning. Having looked at the portraits again after a few weeks I can see many places that they can be improved. I am not the first portrait painter to feel that way. 

Here’s the other four portraits:

Painting of a bronze cat.

 

Painting of a bronze cat. 

This little bronze statue of an Egyptian cat was given to me by a friend who had treasured it for a long time. I promised her a painting of it in exchange.  

I worked out a still life composition with crystals. I am not sure what the crystals are, except for the lumpy "fool's gold" in the centre and the big grey lump which is unpolished Connemara marble. 

The painting of the cat figure has been done for some time but I am finding the Connemara marble a challenge. I am painting layers upon layers in little dots of greys with hints of green and yellow. It is taking hours. I take as long as I need to get it right. 

I have painted Connemara marble before but that was in pastel on textured paper. This time I am working in Acryl gouache on a very smooth surface so I have to paint the texture rather than letting the materials suggest it for me. 

The texture isn't the biggest challenge. It is hard to describe such an irregular shape. 

The rounded polished stones will be easy. I am a little bit worried about the fool's gold. I don't think it will be as difficult as the Connemara marble. It has flat facets which are easier to depict even if the shape is irregular.