Continuing a Portrait of Pudge

I roughed in the painting of Pudge using largish, bristle brushes and it very quickly started to fall into place. The fur already feels like the correct texture for a lab mix. Pudge’s coloring seems about right too. Some paintings are like this one–they seem to develop easily and smoothly. No wrong strokes or mistakes. Others fight back and you wonder if they will ever reach what you want them to be.

At the start of any painting, I never know how it’s going to go. That’s why I usually allow some flexibility in planning how long a painting will take. If I get one of the tricky ones, I like to take some time away from it and come back and look at it fresh which helps to see how to make it better.