Day three of pet portrait class and we’re now more than halfway through.  Despite the killer schedule of having class every night, I could really use another week at least!  Thank God Linda welcomes us emailing her with pictures if we get stuck or have a question.  Since I’m hoping to donate this painting for a silent charity auction later this fall, I will totally be taking her up on that!  There’s no way I’ll be able to finish this painting by the end of class on Friday, but I hope to make great progress the next two days.

Today she went over a little bit about colors then we all got busy working on the paintings.  I had experimented with mixing up some colors last night to help speed things up tonight and boy, was that a good thing!  I got a nice gray mixed up for the undercoat and started blocking in the cat.  I hate this part.  This is the part where I want to give up and walk away from the painting. But I know if I stick with it, I’ll get past this part and it’ll get better.

Really doesn’t help that I hadn’t painted with oils for around 7 or 8 months before taking this class.  I will NEVER go that long again.  This is my new resolution and I will be sticking with it.  I take a class and make great progress, then once the class is over with, I stop doing it.  Then when I take the next class, I feel like I’ve been thrown in the deep end and I’m struggling to get back to where I was before.  Then just when I’m feeling like I’m getting there, the class is through and again, I stop.  I’ve done this with various things through my life when it comes to art and slowly, I’m starting to mend my ways.



Anyway, I persevered and kept on painting and finally, I started to get to a place where it began to actually resemble the cat.  That was a good moment!  I started to feel hope that it might all turn out well in the end.  I finally did finish the undercoat of the cat.  I can spot a few areas that aren’t quite right, but overall, she’s looking so much better than I thought she would be!

Towards the end of class I started to move on and got the base of the bird feeder blocked in.  I have to look for a few reference photos for the bird so that I can be prepared to work on him.  I think that blocking in the rest of the painting will go much faster, especially since it’s not as detailed as the cat itself and then I can get started on adding the layers of fur to her.

Anyway, now I’m off to go finish up a few things and hopefully be in bed by midnight.  As much as I would love another week of this, I really need sleep!  So thankful I was able to take this class.  I always learn so much in Linda’s workshops.

Be back again tomorrow night!