I finished the charcoal stage on my latest animal painting.  I’ve started completing this stage in a few steps now as well.  I am now getting about 90-95 percent complete with my first stage charcoals, spray-fixing heavily, and then coming back in with white colored pencil to push my whites and details further.  I might also start incorporating black colored pencils here in the future as well just to give myself a little more precision in places.  I’m a little concerned with the block patterning in the background and will probably end up pushing that back with value and cool colors, just to pop Mr Corgi out a bit.  Now, on to color studies!

I’m starting work on my animal series again and hoping that I can get the bulk of it finished in a few more months.  Not sure if I am still intending to do an ABC animal book or not but we’ll have to see how things play out.  I’m working on a Corgi right now, still pretty small scale at 5″ x 7″, and just plugging away on the charcoals.  You can see a little of my process here where I’ve gridded off my toned canvas and am working up from my digital comp.  As I go I make small alterations to lighting and details to try to unify all the various elements and direct the viewer eye as best as I can.  For purposes of the novella to go along with the work I’m also trying to incorporate more backgrounds now, applying the advice I give to my students that a good environment is key in establishing a place in space and time and can affect the appearance of the subject quite a bit.  I’ll try to keep posting the work as I go.

It was brought to my attention that I have not done any female animals yet so I though I would create my next painting of a female mongoose.  It took a little while finding the right reference and adjusting it to work but so far the charcoals are looking about where I want them to be.  I only have a few more days to finish this one as I am trying to get this into our next art show.  I gelled it up last night so it is ready to paint tomorrow.  I’m thinking about pushing the wall back a bit, darkening the value to push a little more shadow into it when I’m applying the color so that my lady will pop a bit more.  Still not set on a color scheme but lately I’ve been gravitating towards teal for my shadows.  Have to see when I bang away on the color studies.

Had to take another break from Ruby June to work on a painting for a show with a French theme.  I figured there would be plenty of images of the traditional French fare and so decided to theme this piece with my other animal work, placing it in the French countryside.  A while back I came across a book of illustrations on architecture in rural France and was really taken by the unique rustic look and so thought that would be a great setting.  This piece is only the second I have done with any real level of detail in the environment and I am very excited to see if I can push out further into that. The only trouble I’ve run into with this piece, if you can even call it trouble, is that the fur doesn’t have the same level of detail as other elements in the work.  I figure I can push on it when I get to the painting, though, and so am not overly concerned.  I usually cover up a lot of the finer detail in the painting anyway and so do not want to spend too much time refining it.

I did like the way the way the hard eraser worked for me in the pulling out of the grasses in the foreground.  That is a little experiment that actually turned out better than I anticipated, layering in all the value and detail and then just pulling out the grass.

Once I complete this piece, I should be back onto the Ruby June book.  It is weighing on me that I haven’t been able to bring it to completion yet.

Having another productive day so I’m going to make up for the lack of posts over the week and post two today!  Just finished the value pass on this fellow.  Decided to jump ahead and work on the vulture for the ABC animal book.  Was a little worried about the merging of the textures in the fur of the coat and the feathers around the neck.  I think they turned out good for the value pass and I should be able to further differentiate them when I apply the color in the painting stage.  I’m not sure who this guy is yet though I’m certain he will tell me before long.  Just have to spend a little time with him.  Could be a performer in a theater troupe.  Or a young nobleman just off the road.  Only time will tell.