Henry ... new work-in-progress

Henry • WORK-IN-PROGRESS

Today I started on this commissioned portrait of Henry, a little teddy bear of a dog who had me smiling all the while I was working on him this afternoon. I wasn’t the only one painting Henry today; Kimberly Santini put it perfectly on her blog when she said that Henry’s Grandma couldn’t decide between us, so she invited both of us to paint Henry! We’re both delighted, because now we’re becoming friends and we might even be able to meet in person soon when she comes from Michigan down to Baton Rouge to teach a workshop. So cool.

Anyway, Kim has already posted her painting here on her blog. And be sure to check out her website, too. I love her lively use of color (of course, because I’m a color nut, like so many of you out there.)

Today I finished the acrylic underpainting, and tomorrow I will continue in oils. Remember, it’s perfectly fine to paint oils over acrylics, but not the other way around. Unless you’re the adventurous type who just wants to see what happens. Far be it from me to prevent experimentation! What could happen? I mean, I don’t think the universe would implode or anything if someone tried to paint with acrylics over oils; it just wouldn’t turn out like they expected, and it’s not generally recommended.

Hey, I just googled what happens if you paint with acrylics over oils? and got a lot of interesting information. If you’re like me, you might want to set a timer before you go wandering off, or you might just spend more time than you intended to in internet-land when there are other things you really need to be doing.

Just sayin’.

Here are my work-in-progress photos for Henry so far (above is my initial sketch, in Prussian blue):

Here, I’ve started adding color glazes to the different areas, phthalo blue and quinacrodone fuschia Henry’s fur, Hooker’s green for the throw in the background, and burnt umber and fuchsia for the blanket in the foreground.

And here I’ve layered more color glazes in: burnt umber to deepen the green in the background throw (which will be mostly sort of burnt orange/red in the finished painting), some yellow-orange in the highlighted area on Henry’s head and ears, and that same yellow-orange and vermilion on the foreground blanket (which will be kind of turquoise blue and lavender in the finished painting). I had to laugh when I took these last two photos, because it looks kind of like he’s wearing a Raggedy Ann wig.

Check back tomorrow for more progress ...

Happy painting!