FINAL ENTRY :))

 The left ear has now been adjusted somewhat and I can only hope that the discrepancy is not too noticeable. From here it is a matter of details and more layering. There is not a lot of room for error with this medium so it is important to work lightly at first.

The eyes, nose and mouth are taking shape and will take a lot of tweaking before I feel I have captured them accurately. Also, Woogy needs more layers of black.

So, onward and upward. The end is in sight now and I am enthused and excited to complete the painting. Just a little more detail, a bit of lifting and another layer of black. The mouth area is a challenge because in the photo it is a little difficult to see clearly.

Eventually though I feel it is time to put down my brush. I am never sure when to quit fiddling so return with fresh eyes a couple of more times. Eventually, yes, it is time to add the ocular reflection and my signature. 

WOOGY

There. Now I can say for sure that I am finishing painting Woogy. Thank you Jan and Brad for trusting in me to paint Woogy. Every painting teaches me something new and is an opportunity for me to grow as an artist.

~C

ENTRY #2 :)

 Here are a couple of progress pictures of the background. The first couple of washes that go down are always scary. I used to panic when I first started painting but I've learned that I need patience and to believe in my own abilities.

YIKES!

A LONG WAYS TO GO

I am pretty happy with the background colours and will continue to add texture keeping in mind that I don't want them to be too dark. 

The creative process is interesting--and sometimes even magical--when I looked at the result above I could suddenly see the highlights in Woogy's fur matching the turquoise. Nothing ventured nothing gained so I decide to go with it.

And here's the result below! I am feeling pretty confident that this will work. As a reader, you are probably in shock, but please bear with me.  lol

NO, IT'S NOT A PIGLET

Over the next eight hours or so, Woogy starts to appear slowly. Fascinating process no? (Hang in there with me.)

At this point I'm starting to panic--that right ear is too large. When I examine the photo I can see what went wrong. There is a cast shadow to the back and left and I have drawn in the shadow as part of the ear. It is too late to fix that so I will have to focus on trying to "match" the left ear in size somewhat. Otherwise, I am encouraged by how it is progressing..

But it's time to step away so that I can return in the morning with fresh eyes, a positive attitude and a calmer mind. See you in the next post with some more progress photos.

~C

ENTRY #1

 Hello, welcome to my blog. I didn't know Woogy but sadly he recently passed over the rainbow bridge and his family has asked for a portrait of him to be done in water colour. This blog  outlines the process I use. 

WOOGY

Brad and Jan supplied several photos and this is the one I decided on. I will be using Arches cold press paper with a weight of 300 lbs. It is a heavy paper but nonetheless I will stretch it to be on the safe side. While it dries over night, I will start to prepare my sketch of Woogy. I use tracing paper to transfer my sketch to the water colour paper once it has dried.

A vital decision at this stage is to decide on a colour palette. The colours for Woogy are pretty basic--black and white. However, a black from the tube looks flat so for this painting I am going to mix two colours--Daniel Smith's Lunar Blue with Sepia. Potter's pink for his ears.

Before applying any brush to paper though, I have to think about background. Do I do one and if I do is it just a splash or do I go into a more elaborate type of background. This must be decided first because depending on my choice, it may have to be painted before the subject.

Okay, so I have thought about background options. I like the turquoise as a contrast to Woogy and have decided too that I like the linear look. So, basically, I am going to stick to the photo for this one. This means that the background will go down first. It also means that it is a good thing that I stretched my paper because the background will require several wet washes. 

So, I am anxious to get going. Catch you over on Entry #2.

~C