Raccoon WIP

Well finally warmer, but rain, drizzle and fog today.  What a winter and we got it easy compared to the Midwest and Northeast.  So this morning first up was the raccoon.  Am getting the hang of doing a layer and then letting it dry for a day or so and then going back in for the next rework.  Guess that is why the posts look so hodge podge because I am working on a couple of things at a time. 

I know that the raccoon eyes are really, in life, much darker, but it just looked like two big black holes, so hard to get any character.  Had to look on the internet to find the structure of the raccoon  skeleton and eyes - never thought I'd find it, but there was quite a bit of information available.   Nothing like learning a little anatomy.  Surprisingly found they have slanted eye look with the outer skin creating the midtones to better define the eyes (who knew) so sure am glad I looked.   But think this still reads dark eyes while still being able to actually see them.  I might selectively darken portions, remember am using glaze techniques on this, once I get to the tweak stage. 

Ok, right side is pretty much complete, except for ear, and left has the base in coat in.  That is the darker side anyway.  Call me crazy but I just love doing the tongue, that little pop of pink I think adds so much. 

Hope you are enjoying your Sunday and thanks so much for stopping by for an update.

Comments

hmuxo said…
Wonderful ...wonderful work, Nelvia.....I love his eyes!
February 22, 2015 at 10:46 AM
Jane said…
Enjoying to see your update, really coming along gloriously !
February 23, 2015 at 1:38 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