Rainy day today, painted a new dog portrait. I need new brushes bad.

Some work was getting done in my apartment yesterday so I settled in a spot to stay out of the way and played around with painting some small works (5"x 7")...........some pet portraits. I'm told the pet business is a big one and we all know I'm constantly looking for alternative ways to increase my income :-)
I think the shepherd could probably use a little more work...ok, and the cat too...lol, but what do you think?
Are there pet portraits in my future??

New Technique

Since doing this video about two years ago I'm doing sand a whole different way. A way I discovered in 'Painting The Secret World Of Nature' by John Agnew.
I've mentioned this book in the past and it bears mentioning again. Now I use the spatter technique to do my sand.
I lay down a base coat of a sandy tan color and then over that I spatter (using a toothbrush or stiff bristle brush) different colors...black, brown, off white, terra cotta etc. Check out his book for more detail.

Wanted you to see how the clients came up with the theme for their mural, so I took a wider shot.
While I was there I also got the opportunity to add the hardware to the barn doors in the farm mural (that I had forgotten to do) I did for the playroom.
So that's done. What's next?....not sure. No new mural projects on the schedule......that's not good. I just got this month's rent paid today, plus a late fee....two weeks late, and now I'm broke again. Safe to say next month's rent will be late as well. This can't go on.

I may continue to tweak during the afternoon, but this is pretty much the final. Installation tomorrow. The colors are not true....the water is not that color!...much deeper/duller.

A new update. Have to make some color and anatomical adjustments on the deer (funny how you don't see things til you take a photo) and there's about another 3 feet to the bottom. Should be finished today, most definitely by tomorrow....Sunday is installation day.

Update on the deer mural .....started working on the deer today.

MOVIE MONDAY: Tropical Mural Part 1

Today's the first chance I had to get back to the deer mural. Here's today's progress.

Finally got it started and here's todays progress.
Scary uh? Just laying down some background color..
Intensifying the color a bit. I used a sponge for this, I don't usually use sponges but thought it would be a quick way to get some texture in there for the foliage.
And starting to add in allllllllllll the trees.....this is going to take a while.