Buffalo acrylic WIP

I find myself working on a picture that is going pretty slow and it is going to take another week or so to come together.  It is out of my "normal", but I am also learning that will acrylics you just have to keep on layering and seems like most really super acrylics are done in that manner.

So, to keep myself from overthinking that picture I decided to start a new one, going to be called "The Man".   Personally I would run like crazy if he were standing there looking at me like that.  Originally this was going to be done with the alcohol ,marker base and color pencil over it.  But I knew I wanted to try to use some non-traditional colors and figured I needed all the forgiveness I could get so switched to acrylics on this piece as well.  However, I don't want to be super realistic in either color or brushwork so the challenge here is to get loose or when it ain't loose, try "painterly".

So here is the initial block in.   Don't ask me what the heck is going on in the background because I don't know, but it was hills in the reference and I kind of liked the curves.  So by the end who knows what it might morph into.

I know that a picture has to go through a whole bunch of stages.  This one is pretty ugly, mainly working on getting the paper covered and trying to get the features close to the right places without a lot of detail.  One wonderful thing about acrylic is you can always paint light or dark over something and start again.  That is exactly what will happen next as I am going to start to further define the details with broad strokes and light and dark areas.

Stay tuned!!

Thanks for stopping by and taking a look

Comments

Helen said…
Ahhh... the "ugly stage"... I know it well! My art mentor used to says, "All paintings like all children must go through their ugly stage. We just have to love them through it." Ha ha ha
I can't wait to see the end product of this one!
August 25, 2017 at 3:55 PM
Sheila said…
Not too ugly. I like all the curves, including those in the body. And the colors in his hide are really eye-catching. Have fun!
August 26, 2017 at 2:30 AM
Mellowood Gallery said…
You are off to a good start with this,Nelvia. I always think that their back legs don't look strong enough to hold them up and they seem to be so front heavy that they should fall on their faces - lol. Have fun with this!
August 26, 2017 at 11:52 AM
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