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All right, here is the finished pups.  Thanks to Gary Greene for this exercise with working in watercolor pencils.  Very light blending with the brush still leaves the pencil lines but softens a bit.  Jury is out on this technique but glad I tried it and will try it again but on the mat board as the support might make a big difference in final result, maybe make it a bit softer.  Will continue to try to come up with the right fur technique.  Learned form this project and am sure I will apply something from it to the next dog and yes there will be one as I'm hooked. Thanks for stopping by and have a great paining week.

Here is the updated version of the sleeping pups.  You can see on the bottom one I am building the underlying fur base colors and getting the various wrinkles and shapes in place.  Really different to get exspressions without the eyes open.  Liking the way this is progressing. Hoping that this will be finished tomorrow.

Ok taking a bit of the holiday with this light hearted picture of pups sleeping before I get into a serious painting of interpreting my friend's poem.  This is an exercise out of Gary Greene's book and is a different colored pencil technique than I've done before.  This is using water color pencils, supposed to be on mat board but didn't want to do that large of a picture, so this is on my go-to 9"x12" watercolor board - secret here is to do the blending but don't use much water and that is difficult because even the board wants to buckle a bit.  Still working on my hair techniques and have a long way to go to  make it hair but not look like a stroke.  Also see now that I want to put some indigo into the background behind the head to make it stand out a bit more - different color schemes.  Have a couple more pieces running around in my head so hard to focus and get something on paper.  Wanted to try this, one of those thought I'd get it done ...

Title:  Bear Media:  Graphite/Colored Pencil on Bristol Board Size:  9"x12" Well I knew Bear was laughing and now have found out the reason, "he" is really a "she".  I am still going to fuss on her a while, but want to be really sure I don't do or undo something so it will only be very minor touches, like I already see I need to make the top of her right ear a bit darker.  Actually the more I look at it I think I'll have to do a bit more work on the shape of that ear. She taught me a good lesson in handling shorter wiry coarser fur texture and I kind of came up with a new technique that I think is repeatable.  But pretty much for now am calling her completed and it's on to the next picture itching to get down on paper. I have two ideas for my friend's poetry and want to get them roughed out and will let her decide which one she finds the most suitable.  And then I have a couple of long-haired labs that I get to play with, so fur...

Well here is Bear's progress for this week.  it is getting closer to having all the base in, only about the ear is left, but then it will be reworking to get the color gradiations and a lot more of the hair work on the snout.  Should be another weeks work of effort and then I'll be satisfied. Hope everyone has been busy.

Well here is the culmination of this weekend's work on Bear.  He is still taking his dear sweet time coming on the paper, but at least he is beginning to take shape - could at least eat or drink something now that he has a mouth with big teeth.  Still quite a bit of work to go and then a fair amount of tweaking on his coat.  I still keep fussing over several sections on his face, erase redo, but like the way his left (really his right) shoulder came out with the variations in the coat texture.  Now that I have more graphite on the page his eyes don't look too bad and I really like the difference between the color and black and white.  Of course that might be because he would normally be mostly black anyway.  He is turning into a handsome boy, not like the boy below. I framed up Rosco and that Boxer boy is going to go to the office with me and keep me company until I replace him with the next love of my life (we won't share that with Paul)....

Well my friend Bear is not coming out on the paper quickly - he is just taking his time.  I always thought he was laughing and think he is laughing at me as he knew the joke was that he knew he'd take a lot of time. However he is teaching me a lot (and again by posting I see things I don't usually just looking at the easel - interesting). He has a short hair coat and it's really glossy,reflects a lot of light giving me many shades of grey which I need to try to immulate.  Still am using basically only two pencils 2B and 4B.  Will put him at my chair or since it's BEAUTIFUL outside to the porch and he will go faster than sitting on the easel.  It's 60 this morning and we are now well on our way to summer as we'll be highs in the 80's and this is still March which is supposed to be winter. Funny, I looked down at my hands and realized I've developed a new hair technique for him and totally hold the pencil in a different position - almost like I am ...