I have a hard time calling paintings finished. Sometimes I look at something I painted in the not so distant past and thin to myself, that could use a bit more here and there. I work paint like it's pencil sometimes, thin layers on top of each other. This is good and bad, depending on the subject. Sometimes it is fussy. With the wolf, the fur is complex and multicolored. Do I paint every hair, or use chunkier paint to show the fur? I sort of straddle that in this portrait. I came back to it and “punched” it up, as writers say. I added more color and made the highlights cleaner. I deepened the sky colors, made his eyes more focused. I think now, finally, “the wolf comes home” is done.
I have a hard time calling paintings finished. Sometimes I look at something I painted in the not so distant past and thin to myself, that could use a bit more here and there. I work paint like it's pencil sometimes, thin layers on top of each other. This is good and bad, depending on the subject. Sometimes it is fussy. With the wolf, the fur is complex and multicolored. Do I paint every hair, or use chunkier paint to show the fur? I sort of straddle that in this portrait. I came back to it and “punched” it up, as writers say. I added more color and made the highlights cleaner. I deepened the sky colors, made his eyes more focused. I think now, finally, “the wolf comes home” is done.