Dog Portrait

Dog Portrait 

Had time over the holiday season to try some new stuff.  This is a study done in gouache. Started out with pencil drawing.  Did a wash to lay out tones then worked on it far too much. 



Touched it up a bit in Photoshop. I prefer the one above. 

Dog Portrait 

  

Hitman

Hitman

Continuing with the characters and switching up style. 

Goats in a Barn - After John Frederick Herring

After John Frederick Herring

A gouache study of  a piece by John Frederick Herring.   Really pleased with this one.  In part because I know what it looked like about half way through. I thought about ditching it at that point but pushed through.  I think I worked on it over 3 days going back in and reworking passages.  Thats ability to rework is what I find great about this medium but really I should be getting it right the first time.  

Its a bit wet

Its a bit wet

A bit of a coincidence.  I had started work on this before storm Desmond.  This storm dropped a lot of water on an already rain soaked Ireland causing multiple floods and a lot of damage.  

A liitle bit of pomp

During the Meissonier study  I also worked on this fellow.  

After Jean Louis Ernest Meissonier-Gouache

This was a study to practice using gouache.  Meissonier was known for his detail work so this was a good one to practice with.  I drew the image out in pencil then went in with the paint. It was painted over a sessions.

Character sketches 7

Still a few of these to go but I will start mixing it up with some environments. Have no written much the past few posts.  That was down to my keyboard- the space bar stopped working and I was using the on screen keyboard to drop in the spaces.  Brand new shiny rig now.  Anyway I stuck with this exercise because it forces me to work in lines and figure out details before painting.  Something I would not have usually chosen to do but I can see the advantages and it definitely speeds things up.