Now that I have the underpainting completed, it is time to get to the good stuff. Color! I work from background to foreground and put in a layer at a time, as opposed to working all the way to finish on each element. Here, I have laid in the sky and far landscape.

The next day’s work. At this point I’m working sporadically, having other projects I have to wrap up. So not much progress is being made yet.

The jackelope gets a lick of paint.

I wasn’t happy with my rendering of the cowboy’s face. I was working from reference I pulled off of the Google, but the angles and lighting weren’t right. So I had to call in the big guns. Shooting your own reference always makes a great difference. And no, Harper didn’t mind modeling for a boy image.

Here I’ve completed the first layer of color and have started the second. In the fun spots, like the jackelope and cowboy faces, I have done even more work. In less fun areas, such as the dream catcher, there is still only the underpainting. At this point, it is Friday morning and I need to have it completed and photographed and submitted to the Hunting Art Prize competition (more on that later) by midnight of the next day.

After pulling an all-nighter, this is where I am half way through Saturday. Everything has received a third going over, except the sky, and much of the detail has been added.

Almost done. I have added late afternoon lighting to the clouds and enhanced the lighting everywhere else to fit with it.

DONE! Whiskers and all. I’m happy with my painting, but had to take a poorly lit, night time, iPhone photo of it to submit to the competition. That doesn’t bode well for my chances of being selected.

Detail 1

Detail 2

Detail 3

So why did I nearly kill myself with sleep deprivation to finish this painting? For an art contest. The Hunting Art Prize is a competition open only to Texas residents and only to traditional paintings and drawings. It is sponsored by the international oil services company, Hunting PLC. ,so the judges tend to be conservative in their tastes. But the prize is $50,000, the largest in the country. I was a finalist two years ago and got to go to the super posh gala in Houston they held for announcing the winner. I hope to go again. Fingers crossed.