Feed the Hungry

Her ears might need one more round, but I'm hanging this in the drying room for now. Two down, five to go.

Close up of the pups

Headstone gray

Still painting variations on white fur. Added little shadows under the rosary. Worked on her eyes. Here's a detail


The big change is changing the grass green background to Bury the Dead. I made a color I'm calling headstone gray.

I'm much, much happier.

I heading for a nap now, and when I get up I'm going to draw Visit the Sick. There are two dogs, part of a wheelchair, and legs in striped pajamas involved.

In honor of all who mother the orphaned

Today I added the edge of the dresser, the rosary, and another round of detail on the eyes and muzzle of the mother dog. I need the dresser to dry before I add the anchoring shadows to the beads. Going to research halos a little more before I start on hers. The mother was losing her fur from the stress of feeding so many, thus the pink patches of skin showing through here and there. Lots more fur to build up still.

The rosary has anchored me to this painting. I like the way it highlights the values the painting references - sacrifice, nurturing the orphaned, the sustaining necessity of faith - over the simple charm of puppies. And there are personal references for me - specifically of a woman who offered to say a novena for me when I was pregnant with my third child and having miscarriage symptoms. I can't adequately express how comforting that was. And in a more oblique way, the fact that foster parents took care of me for nine months while my birthmother resisted putting me up for adoption. I don't know their names, and have no way to thank them. This painting, in a small way, honors them. And the obvious - this is the dam that suckled my puppy when her own mother died giving birth to the litter.

Feed the Hungry, Bury the Dead

Today worked on the white areas on the puppies and blocked in the Mama. I knocked the red hue down on the far right pups. I'm going to add a rosary across the front that will drape over her paw and over the lip of the front edge (not painted in yet), and put in her halo next. Needs lots of value pushing and, the part I love, individual hairs curving out here and there.



This is the start of Bury the Dead.

Eleven Puppies

I painted eleven puppies; four rubies, two Blenheims and five tricolors. Everything but the white - first the dark colors need to dry. The four source photos I took have different tones and shades, so I pretty much had to make it up the colors based on my personal knowledge of cavaliers. I am going to have to tone down the ruby pups on the far right. The wood underneath them may have to change because it's so similar in value, but maybe shadows will do the trick.

Progress on Clothe the Naked and Feed the Hungry

I added the chair, and worked on the dog's face.  His face is a black blob in the source photo I took, so I found another one with the same profile position and am working from that.

Here's a detail-


I plugged in the base of Hungry too. It's a piece of quarter-sawn oak that's the top of the dresser. It's also seen in Thirsty. I'll be adding more detail in the way of wood grain, but want to keep it simple and the focus on the dogs.


Had a kick ass painting day. I've cleaned my brushes, put the paint away, and now I'm going to go scrounge up some dinner.