As ever, spring brings the need to be outside. The few weeks of May we've had so far have kept me outdoors more than in, working the gardens, a situation that means less progress on several of the works that have been in progress for these past couple of months. That's not to say that I've not been working--I have. But I haven't started anything new, alas. And I haven't had time to do any photographs. I do have two new portraits in the works, one of which is posthumous, the other based on photographic references, but neither of which has progressed quite so well as I had hoped. And although I've no photos to post, I've also been working on and off on several small landscape sketches that I may turn into full-size paintings. Almost all of the sketched landscapes are 6"x8" on gessoed panels. Perhaps I'll have time to post photos of these as the next few days progress.
On the portraiture front, I did deliver the final version of the female portrait I posted in April--"Portrait of Linda"--and will be tweaking and delivering the other (of David, the biochemist) I uploaded at the same time. When that one is photographed and ready to go, I'll post the final version of that one, too.
The painting of those d***ed cats is approaching completion but needs considerably more work. I've wondered if I'm avoiding it deliberately, but decided that I'm wrong about that; I've simply needed more reference material. Yeah...that's the ticket!
Here is the final version of my portrait of Roy, shown in it's initial stages below. This one took a while longer because I was struggling with the skin tones. Roy lives on the east coast and all I've had to complete this one was reference photos. I plan on giving this one to him in a month or so when my wife and I are in Virginia for an art festival and show.
