This is the first in a series of posts as I work through my first black bear painting. The reference photos come from a trip to North Carolina. Normally for something this complicated I wouldn’t have stretched the linen first. It is easier to mount the canvas on a flat surface for drawing than stretch […]

Here we are at the completed underpainting.  Up to this point the only medium has been turpentine.  It has taken about seven weeks so far.

With the underpainting complete the real painting can begin.  Starting with the most distant and working left to right, top to bottom, you can see I’ve started in the lower right.  Those of you who know me, know I sometimes like to work on a painting that is up-side-down, hence the lower right.  All of […]

After the painting of the black bears I started mounting the canvas on a board for the drawing and underpainting phase.  It makes it much easier to draw on a flat surface and not worry about constantly pressing on the stretched canvas.  I set up a table next to my easel, or more importantly, next […]