White Poodle, Day 12 (final?)

Today I made it back after several weeks away. This was my last Tuesday, because I've gotten a new job (a promotion! yay!), and my new schedule won't allow for me to copy on Tuesdays. In fact, I may have to stop copying for the foreseeable future, unless I can switch to an occasional Thursday. Such is the life of a part-time library employee.

So by necessity, this was probably the last day for me to work on this copy in the museum. Of course, I could still work on it at home, from photos on the computer, if I decide that I could improve upon it. I've been looking at it too long to know for sure.

Today I mainly worked on the fur, trying to get it right. But of course I'm still not happy. I don't think it's possible to paint fur as well as Stubbs did. I also darkened the tree by glazing it with burnt umber and ultramarine blue. I didn't darken the sky, even though it's obviously darker in the painting. I think it has yellowed with time, and I preferred to leave it a lighter blue.

(click the images for a larger view)

White Poodle, day 11!

Oh my goodness, it seems the more I do, the more I see that I have to do... 

Just plugged away at the fur today, but I can't say that I've improved it any. Hopefully, one of these days it will come together!

Today I tried something different - I put my easel on the right, instead of the left! I don't know why I hadn't done this before (see earlier posts). When the easel was on the left, I was turning my head to the right in order to look at the original, and my painting was also in a dark spot. Today, I positioned the easel on the right, and Voila! I was in a more natural, comfortable position where I didn't even have to turn my head to look at the painting, and also, my painting had much more light on it. I was also standing closer, so I could see the details better. Why did it take me eleven visits to figure this out?

I plugged away on the fur, trying very hard to restrain myself and paint each tuft of fur individually. I soon realized that I'd been trying to get these little details with too big of a brush (I think I was using a size "2" filbert - so I switched to the smallest brush I had with me, a size "0" sable round. Made a huge difference! I whittled away at the tail a bit, and will build it back up again next week.

I'm still not very happy, but will I ever be? I keep adjusting the color of the undercoat. Several people gave me their opinions. I listen to everybody and take it all into consideration. I stopped when I realized I was just too tired to think straight anymore.

(click the images for a larger view)