Ok here it is already late Sunday afternoon with a long work week looming in front of me.   I just haven't gotten it together this weekend because I just didn't know how to go about doing this dog so I just found excuses not to get started.  So it froze me, finally just said time to start and change it up on the fly. 
So here is "Yes I'm Sexy and I know it".  Isn't he about the homeliest dog, but just look at that face - he is adorable.  He has been a rough toughie and it took me all week to get my thumbnail shadow plan in my sketchbook, tranferred to tracing paper which I then traced onto my bristol board.  He just didn't want to get down on paper - so we fought, I won.   I am doing him in a larger format, think it's 11"x14" as I wanted to have some space around his chubby cheeks. 
I started out thinking I would do this in watercolor pencil and regular colored pencil - hence the ultra smooth surface of bristol board.  Well, let me tell you that's changed.  Immediately it became clear I couldn't get the look I wanted.  This dog has short hair and it just looked like I was scratching lines, so now it is going to be an overall softer look, with touches (I HOPE) of fur that makes you think he's furry all over.  So right now think my approach be a combination of water color pencils, colored pencil and pastel touches for color correction and filler - and as you can see I am just at the start -- so who knows what it will be when I get to the end.
The bad news is that this is something I can't do in my chair in front of the tv with my hubby snoring softly in his chair so that means it will take me a bit longer.  I'll have to find something else to fiddle with in the chair this week and sneak in 10 to 15 minutes at a time to get this moving.

Comments

renate said…
STOP don't go any further!! I already like it like it's right now. This must become a beauty, that's for sure! I know it was worth the fight with him and there may be some more fights to come:) You will win! Lots of succes and I hope you will post so now and then your progress.
January 29, 2012 at 5:06 PM
Log Cabin Studio said…
Nelvia,
It is looking great.Thanks for stopping by my blog and leaving your comment.The answer to your question is yes,I put two coats of sealant on the stone,then the painting and then two coats of sealant over the painting.I hope this helps.
Caroline
January 31, 2012 at 1:48 PM
Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Bold woman's portrait

Image
Bold Ok, for today's portrait I went out of the box and decided to try a different look and approach. This is on watercolor paper, I applied a layer of paper collate over it (you can see that some of it started lifting - so got to use more medium to glue it next time)  Anyway then I tried to leave part of that under collage showing, even in the face.  Went back in and applied several more light lawyers of transparent and opaque paint and then put in the hair using my dagger bus.   Gosh that brush makes hair so much easier While this might not the best example what are your thoughts to taking portraits this more dynamic direction? Thanks for stopping by and taking a look.
Read more

Her Highness mixed media woman portrait

Image
Her Highness   I just absolutely loved the expression on this lady and knew I wanted to try to capture her elegance and serenity.  I knew that I didn't want an exact portrait and decided to try another mixed media piece.    I added blobs of paint and used my large scraper to make the areas of color.  Just put paint on a piece of watercolor paper.  Then I inscribed and mixed the colors together with the end of my brush and got all the wavy lines (in real life they actually stand up so there is a 3D effect to the background).  Where I thought I wanted the face I really scraped most of the paint off, and ended up with color blotches and tones, and if you look in the forehead you can sort of see the design that was left.  I thought it would add some variance to the skin tones. I also want to keep her very soft so I tried to stay in the pastel tones, even with the lips.   Once I got shadows and lights added in, and went over it with some skin tone and more blue colors I let
Read more

In The Garden acrylic painting Redo

Image
In The Garden Original painting Well, thankfully I have some folks who tell me what they think.  I value their objective opinions very much and appreciate that they feel strongly enough to tell me when they feel something is off.  In the original painting no one liked the addition of the yellow flower, and felt it pulled the eye and overshadowed the focal point.   Well, I sat on it a bit and starting playing with how I could work it back into the composition.  I wanted the third flower, but I couldn't just really dull down the yellow.  As you an see I ended up making it darker in shadows and then burying it into the foliage.  I like it better because it now looks, to me, like it is part of the picture instead of just being put on in the corner.  Moral of the story, fix it first because it is hard to come in and match colors later. What do you think of the changes - for better or worse? Thanks much for stopping by and taking a look.
Read more