How I remember you - final work part 2

Continuing from previous post, the one on the left below is from the previous post.

I was making minor adjustments. I wanted to follow the photo but it made him looked sad (middle painting). Lighten the shadow on his head and leaving out the details and dark shades.

I used a different paper, they are both the same weight 280-300, I can't quite remember. But the previous one above is made in Taiwan and a lower grade paper for practicing. I bought it in bulk, so it was fairly cheap. 

The one below is Japanese paper, unfortunately they don't really specify what type or the differences. I only know the difference of origin. Not unless you bought it from a specialist store, they may know more. 

The paint I used was exactly the same, the mixture of color would be fairly similar. The colors on the Japanese paper are far more vibrant and transparent, and the different layers of color are much more obvious.

How I remember you - final work part 1

This is the draft from last post, the eyes are a little bit far apart or so I thought and the shadow on his face is not illustrated. It does capture his playfulness, the younger version of him.

Hence I painted the second one, with the eyes closer together. 

Turns out it wasn't the distant of his eyes, it was the size of the nose. The shadow on his face is illustrated but it is not quite right. 

The gaze looks like him, soft and happy, looking far away but very much aware of your present. 

He was always a little bit camera shy. In the past, when he spotted the camera, he would look away or walk away to avoid it. On odd occasions you get to catch him looking at the camera. 

I really like this one, the earlier versions I kept painting the younger him. The fur on his face has faded in the last few years, this reflect the period when the photo wa taken. Gentle and content. 

Here is the 3 versions next to each other, from left to right. You can see here that it the size of the nose and the improvement of the shadow on his face. Improvement

How I remember you - strive for improvement

This is rather embarrassing to be sharing this with the world as I feel the drawing below look like children's doodle but I wanted to show my work in progress. The strive for improvement. 

When my parents saw this, maybe because there are still in mourning as well, they really liked it and think that it looks like him.

But as I continue to get a little bit better understanding with the color of shadow, I realise I didn't have the right colors to do do the mix. Went to buy some paint because of it. 

In order for his face to pop, in needed a hint blue and violet that for the shadow. It is rarely something is pure white. 

It's getting close, it might be the portion of his head makes it not quite like him and I couldn't fix it because the more you overlap it would start to look dirty.

I overcompensate before with proportion face with this as it was meant to be an Labrador. But if you only look at his eyes it still looks right. He's got a really long eyelashes.

Something clicked, I don't know what it is, I decided to leave the background out as it is distracting. Finally, a draft that's good enough to work on. He looks like how I remembered. I'll talk about it more tomorrow! 

Earth- extended

Stonewear clay with raku clay twirling up, looking like a plant. With the burnt effect from the glaze, also comes through with a clear olive green. 

Frost

Inspired by the cold weather, the morning frost on the leaf.