Critters

This week we hung a new show at the St Michaels Library - the theme is "Critters." The students of Barbara Jablin (classes on Tuesday and Wednesday mornings) were all asked to paint pictures of animals.

I had posted a couple of my paintings awhile ago (back in March and in August). Here is another ...

This was painted from a photograph taken when this puppy arrived at my daughter's house. All her girls were so excited to have a new puppy - MANY photos were taken, but I have always loved this one. My daughter has four girls - three brunettes and one blonde. The blonde lying on the puppy - hair/fur similar color just tugged at me.

I began with a charcoal sketch.

A bit of tweaking here and there, I redrew it on watercolor paper and did some watercolor underpainting. It helps me establish the shapes and colors.

Now it's time to begin with my pastels. The painting is beginning to come together.

It was about this point that I took it to class for critique. It needed more darks between Leighton's head and the puppy. A bit more definition in her face... And then I needed to do something with the background.

I love this orange-gold color with dark green so I decided to try that... but thought a whole painting of that would be too much. I left the foreground natural and just added color behind.

I am calling it "The New Puppy" and it now hangs at the library for the month of November. If you are in the area, stop by and take a look at the whole wall full of Critters!