This latest painting is of a beloved family pet named Ginger, photographed holding a stuffed hedgehog—her best friend!
I had a lot of fun painting this little girl! I fell right into those big soulful eyes with eyelashes so long and orange they looked more like some exotic decor of high fashion.
This was a very challenging piece for me. If it wasn't for the Veridian hedgehog and Ginger's golden eyes, I might not have even accepted the commission, as everything else in the scene from the fur to the carpet was just a sea of white. It didn't help that I was painting from a poorly lit photo with the subject in deep shadow, which further compounded the problem.
I decided the solution required a wide range of temperature shifts to help define the form and texture, along with a vast array of subtle shifts in values so close together it felt like I was performing brain surgery. LOL Well, maybe it wasn't quite that bloody!
Thanks for following my work.
nancy
