Little Bear

Today I am sharing some of the fun action that went on behind the scenes in order to create one of my newest paintings, "Little Bear".   I hope you enjoy this sneak peek!

"Bear" is a precious bundle of energy, fur, and love who won the hearts of his family enough that they requested I paint his portrait.  While it was a challenge to get Bear to sit still long enough for me to take his picture (proven by the outtakes below), he did finally pose for about 15 seconds.  Thank you, Bear! 

And what a sweet pose it was!  I was particularly happy that the sunlight cooperated and gave me some great shadows to work with:

My first step in creating the 36x24 painting was to design a road map of my light, medium, and dark values with a 3x2 "thumbnail" sketch.  If you squint at the photo, you can see that the only place I chose to diverge from the photo was to darken the patio so that it wasn't as light as Bear's fur.

After toning the canvas to soften the harsh white and laying in a simple grid to get the basic placement and proportions correct, I used a warm mix of red and yellow oil paint to sketch the outlines of important shapes.  

With my thumbnail sketch taped to my easel for reference, I began laying in general colors or colors that I wanted to shine through future layers of paint (like the warm orange on Bear's muzzle).  In the image on the right I added a second layer of transparent paint to make the values match my thumbnail road map.  The painting looks sort of wild at this point!

In the next layer I began painting more thickly and using opaque paints.  The image on the left shows my first pass at covering Bear and the one on the right shows my first pass with the chair and background

In the final pass I focused on bringing Bear's soft fur to life with a delicate play of warm and cool colors.  I also added interest to the shapes of the background trees.  At this point, Bear seemed to look back at me in approval.   
Painting his sunlit likeness was a joy :)

Little Bear, SOLD
36x24 Oil 
A big thank you to Bear's people for inviting me in to your home and your lives!