Showing a month of painting: as the days shorten I have less good light to play with and this is a lovely big portrait to play with. After the initial stages of colouring the canvas the layers of paint that go on after that don't appear to change much so I've only taken a few shots. Following on from the last entry, I painted on many more colours (see a bit too much green on the left eyebrow!) and deepened the shadows. I wanted to keep the fur a warm white so added yellow ochres, burnt umbers and muted cadmium reds. My deep shadows complete, I set to work painting in the fur that catches the light. I used a rigger brush to paint fine hairs and resorted to a fan brush on the chest when I wanted to cover the area with more than just one hair at a time! You can see the hairs more clearly on the close-up of the eye. Finally I refocussed on the eyes and nose, adding more detail and deepening a few of the shadows. I used additional reference material from image libraries to ensure accuracy. A quick check tomorrow in proper daylight will hopefully confirm this cheeky portrait of Button is complete!
