30 Paintings in 30 Day Starts Again September 2014

Here we go again. Stay tuned for another 30 days of fresh paintings from your's truly. This September, I hope to offer a mix of plein-air, studio, and abstract paintings. The subjects will be a random potpourri like always. I love the freedom and excitement of discovering new muses while doing this challenge. However, I do have a sub-theme that I'll be working on during the challenge. Gonna keep the details a secret for now. Check in every day starting September 1 to and see what I create.

Thanks for following along!

Pet Projects

JAKE
6"x6" Oil on Panel

with Palette Knife

COMMISSIONED

LEO

8"x10" Oil on Panel

with Palette Knife

COMMISSIONED

BAILY
8"x10" Oil on Panel

with Palette Knife

COMMISSIONED

BUDDY
6"x6" Oil on Panel

with Palette Knife

COMMISSIONED

Pet portraits are increasing in popularity among my patrons. Here are a few samples of pet projects over the past year. 

The trickiest pets to paint are black-faced animals with dark eyes. Photographs do not show the eye detail well enough as they blend into the darkness of the entire face. Since the eye is the window to the soul, this can be a real problem when achieving a likeness. Thankfully, I found a workaround to this problem with Photoshop.

When viewing the photograph in Photoshop, I go under Image and Adjustments to Levels. With the Levels panel open, I move the middle gray level way over to the left. This whacks the mid-tones way off and BINGO—the hidden detail I need is revealed.