Practice, practice, practice

I've been painting quite a bit lately but have been frustrated with how things are turning out. One subject I've been working on is my brother's dog, Raven. Here are a few of my attempts. I'm not completely satisfied with any of them, but I do feel like they're progressing at least. Here they are, from most recent to first painted:

Raven - take 3

Raven - take 2

Raven - take 1

Olive!

I've been painting a lot lately but haven't been liking how anything is turning out. I do think it's been good practice, but it's frustrating not to have anything to share. So here's a "TBT", one I painted over a year ago. It's my friend Jody's cat, Olive. Today is their 4-year anniversary! Olive was the tiniest kitten I'd ever seen when Jody adopted her. Now she's all grown up and loves to sleep in the paper recycling. :)

More Dandelions

I painted dandelions once before and really enjoyed mixing all the yellows, so here's another one. I haven't had much luck painting other flowers- that will be a good challenge for this summer! 

More Stripey Cats

Here's a painting I did a while back of my friend Kerry's cat, Stuart. I've never actually seen Stuart in person because he's sooooo shy. He was fun to paint though! I like the orangey bits in his face.

And here is a painting I've posted before but I hadn't painted the background. I was surprised how much painting a little color in the background changed the whole feel of the painting so I wanted to re-post. This is Roger, my friend Camille's cat.

Is this your dog?

I think I nabbed the reference photo for this painting off Facebook. I can't remember for sure. Is this your dog? 

Bird

It has been a LONG time since I've posted. I sort of fell off the painting wagon but am starting to get back into it.  I'm taking a class again in a couple weeks that I'm really excited about- hopefully I will have lots to post!

This painting is based on a reference photo I found on this cool site called morguefile.com, which has thousands of cool photos that people share for others to use. I'm not sure how it got its grim name but it's a very handy site. :)

Koppi

Greetings from England! I know I'm way behind on my goal of posting a painting a week, I hope to get back into it soon. But in the meantime here's one I painted a few months ago of my other cat, Koppi. I've tried unsuccessfully a few times to paint her close-up but it is SO HARD to paint that pure white face! My calico Callie is just so much easier.