Had to take another break from Ruby June to work on a painting for a show with a French theme.  I figured there would be plenty of images of the traditional French fare and so decided to theme this piece with my other animal work, placing it in the French countryside.  A while back I came across a book of illustrations on architecture in rural France and was really taken by the unique rustic look and so thought that would be a great setting.  This piece is only the second I have done with any real level of detail in the environment and I am very excited to see if I can push out further into that. The only trouble I’ve run into with this piece, if you can even call it trouble, is that the fur doesn’t have the same level of detail as other elements in the work.  I figure I can push on it when I get to the painting, though, and so am not overly concerned.  I usually cover up a lot of the finer detail in the painting anyway and so do not want to spend too much time refining it.

I did like the way the way the hard eraser worked for me in the pulling out of the grasses in the foreground.  That is a little experiment that actually turned out better than I anticipated, layering in all the value and detail and then just pulling out the grass.

Once I complete this piece, I should be back onto the Ruby June book.  It is weighing on me that I haven’t been able to bring it to completion yet.