Here are the two paintings I just finished for Christmas presents.

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My wife and I went for a hike along the lake near our home last weekend, with the leaves just starting to turn. I liked the way this lone sycamore on the lake shore was highlighted against the dark forest shadows in the background. Painted on an 8×10 panel.

Thanks, Delo. I had dreaded painting the water in this scene, but it ended up being my favorite part.

Thanks for posting your steps in the dog portrait. Your sketch and first layer are great. I have quit doing sketches on canvas for my oil paintings, partly because the lead sometimes bleeds through and also because I’m lazy. My “sketch” is usually a light wash with ultramarine blue or burnt umber thinned with OMS. I drew for years before I started oil painting, but now I lack the patience for it.

Kevin that’s some tough stuff there, skin is tricky. There is a lot to consider and indicating all the muscles in the face appropriately really makes a difference to how believable and real it will appear. Keep going though, the more you do the better you will get at it, I am still doing a lot of practice on those even though I do get paid to do it from time to time. No matter how good I get, I always feel I could be better.

Tom, I love when something that I thought was going to be a pain to do turns out to be fun and relaxing. Like the grass in this piece is turning out to be… I am just enjoying the heck out of it, even though I have no reference for it outside of my mind. I usually just sketch things out in paint when I am working, but I didn’t know what final media the client for this piece was going to want, so I did it in colored pencil and showed them the layout.

I am probably half way done or more with this piece now, going to break out the small brushes and super focus the details in the head and chest area then kind of indicate the rest. At a small size like what we see here it looks like it it further along than it really is though, lots of work to do yet, but I am not trying to spend more than 2 more days on it, so I have to really hone in on the details I am trying to ensure read appropriately and let the rest kind of fall out of focus.

I have done more than a few pet portraits, I find them quite enjoyable, but only from reference photos (even compositing them). I do not think I could get a good sketch of a pet from a live model unless it is sleeping or something, pretty sure they move too much the rest of the time.

Definitely going to be trying to retain a lot of the looser work, those seemingly random strokes are actually thought out. Detailed areas will be head and chest, other areas may get a glaze to increase the depth, but will remain largely as they are.

Nice spider Keith! I like this one a lot, it does seem to glow.

On my easel, just starting today, is an elk. I have just finished one as they are very popular in this area. I posted it on a FB page that has elk in their area and it had over 750 “likes” overnight. Sooo, on to another one. Will probably do a series.