Large Painting of Otto Finished!

I am happy that Otto is now complete. These last four stages test your ability to spot-the-difference as nothing much looks like it changes at this level, especially when the photos are small, but the main difference was painting Otto's right paw. I thought it was a pebble and then when I looked at the portrait from a distance I realised he was a little imbalanced! I thought his right paw was underneath him but decided to paint it in. The majority of other changes have been made to the detail on the fur. I painted in lots of different shades of black, grey, white, blue and brown but struggled with my brushes. As Otto has lots of long, fine, wiggly hair I found that none of my usual trusty synthetics worked as they either didn't separate enough, couldn't hold enough paint or weren't fine enough. I even chopped down an old hog hair brush but it didn't give me the precision I needed. Eventually I raided my expensive watercolour sables and used a rigger that did the job perfectly and thankfully seems to have survived. Lastly, more pinks, reds, purples and browns were scumbled onto his mouth for depth, the white fur on his muzzle painted over the top, extra definition added to the eyes and Otto looks like he's about to leap out of the canvas!