Becks-Laying In Of Color

I'm working on a couple of things right now so I wanted to show you where I am in regards to the English-style dog painting that's been put on the back burner while I concentrate on a colored pencil commission (check back in a couple of weeks) which is taking up my immediate attention. Above is the first layer of paint to be put down which consists of my "best guess" in relation to hue, value, and chroma of the scene that I'm depicting. You can still see some of the underpainting color (yellow ochre) peaking through where I haven't quite figured out how I'm going to proceed. I'm pretty happy with the way it's coming together though, knowing that the dog will be darker and the grasses will provide a compositional element leading you back into the painting. Hopefully this illustrates that most paintings don't come together fully-formed, like some Athena bursting forth from Zeus' forehead, but rather as many re-worked layers building up to the finished result. I hope you'll stay tuned to see how it turns out.

'til next time.