This is an oil painting I did recently of my awesome dog Sally. It was painted onto wood which I had prepped with white gesso.
Using a photo I took as a reference I sketched out a drawing and then did an under-painting of burnt umber and ivory black to determine the values.
I then began trying to define the shapes and lighting with hard edged brush strokes in black and some white for the highlights.
I added some more browns in at this point, painted in her collar and the background and called it done when I feel like her personality came through. I was pleased with how using a more hard edged angular brush stroke worked on this piece since I usually do a softer more blended approach.
TOO MUCH?
I sometimes struggle with feeling like I'm overworking my pieces and wishing I could go back a step or two.
With no ctrl-z in real life, it can be useful to seek outside opinions around the time you feel done but also feel the urge to keep tweaking and tweaking. Or to just step away for a while and see how you feel later.
This comic by Alex Norris AKA Webcomic Name sums it up quite nicely.
Some of my other step by step posts
Evil Eye Skull: Oil painting step by step
The Ritual Master: Ink drawing step by step
Green Skull on Wood: Oil painting step by step
