I had been commissioned in the past to do a massive portraits before (ya know that giant Bruce Lee one, 8ftx8ft) WELLL somehow in my fleeting moments of ambition i thought, "how much fun would it be to paint another huge 4 panel painting again?!?!". 
Result = me starting this 4 panel painting of this sweet pooch, Perogie. It's on 4 separate 3ft by 3ft canvases, so not as massive as Bruce Lee but man i tell ya, this one is way more difficult! I really don't know what i was thinking! I know i'm gong to be incredibility happy with it once i'm done it but to 'squeeze' in this painting before i attempt the next one on my waiting list was not the most ideal call (by the way, the next commission consisting of 4 people, 2 separate wedding photographs of each sets of parents from the couple who's commissioning it. Its a pretty intense one since the photos are really old and will require a lot of guesstimating) SO now you can see why i'm asking myself why on earth did i start this 'just for fun' project in the middle of some pretty serious ones! hahah o well! 

Ok, so right now i'm painting the 5th value of my Perogie one. (Side note- a 'value' is just a shade of gray, so if i start with black and add little bits of white to that black each time i tint it and it's a different 'color' its actually a different 'value', just if you're wondering why i call them values) With my style of pop arts i try to get at least 6-12 values of gray in there, the bigger the canvas the more values i can squeeze in there and they always have black and white to. So that means i'm about half way done it. I've enjoyed most of working on it, especially the section of canvas with his adorable wanna-bite-it-off face! What a cutie! 

Today was a tough and challenging day working on it. At that halfway point i almost always wish i never started them, its a beautiful curse a lot of artist are under. So i just have to get over this midway hump, keep pushing though and once i get down to those last two values i'll be looking at it in a different light....... i hope! haha 

The background..... i have given it a little thought, and this is what i'm thinking. Watercolor! I love trying new things on these ones i do for fun so i wanted to try something a little off my beaten path. Well, i lie, I've done it a few times on canvas but nothing in this scale so we will see how it turns out! :P I'm thinking mint green fading into a paynes gray! ooo lalala sexy Perogie!  OOOO man will i ever be cheesed if it ruins the whole portrait of him I've been slaving away on though! Knock on wood! 
So in the meantime here are some progress pictures.....

O and here's the reference photo that i'm using :D please ignore my gross painted up housecoat! 

So i thought this would be a fun and neat idea to keep everyone in the loop on what i am currently working on. Commissions are always on the go for me and i usually squeeze them in between paintings i do for my own interests. WELLL i should reverse that, i squeeze the ones that I want to paint between all the commissions. 

I'll be sharing progress photos (Work In Progress, WIP) a lot on this blog, answering questions that you guys may have, my thoughts on how a pieces is coming along including the struggles; yes almost every piece hits a stage that has me saying "I hate this!" haha. I'll share it all! 

My latest commission was this abstract one, hummmm now that i think of it i never named it! FACT: I totally HATE naming my paintings, haha, i think that is the hardest part of it all, coming up with a name to set it all up, and then i worry that if the name sucks the paintings true 'emotions' will get all buggered up, it causes me some serious anxiety! SOOO if you guys want to toss out names to me for paintings you see me working on i'll very gladly consider them if i think it suites the piece. If anyone has any suggestions on a name for this black, white, gray and silver piece that would be great!!! 

So back to my blurb on this last commission. It was a piece i was given full freedom on, expect for the color palatte. I think this is one of my favorite ways to paint my abstracts. Hearing those sweet sweet words, "I trust you, do whatever you want" is the BEST thing an artist can hear! Whoooo Hoooooo!!!! She had stated that she really loved the piece i did called "The American Dream", my Great Gatsby inspired abstract with the green light, so i kept that in mind throughout it's creation.

I went over to the clients house and looked at her color scheme she had happening in her room that the piece was being commissioned for. We determined the size that would best fit the space and the colors that would work in the piece. 24x48 was the size, on a gallery depth (which means that its a thicker profile canvas, a deeper canvas) and that the edges of the canvas were to be silver since the wall it was going on was painted in an amazing black paint!!!! Loved it, so dramatic! 

So this is the painting i came up with. I mulled it over for a few days and started working on it. Doing these types of 'lined' abstracts are a lot a fun and give me a much needed break from the rigid world of pop art! I think if i was to choose my favorite way of painting, abstract would be it! So much freedom and anything goes. Some people say they see a lake with trees on the horizon, which i totally see, or others say it's just a mass of painted lines. That must be why i like abstract so much to, it's so subjective and no one is right and no one is wrong. 

It was painted in acrylic paint AND i got a wicked new sculpting tool! It's so much fun to use, i'll attach a photo of it below. It's like a rubber spatula that you can use to create textures and lines of depth if you have a lot of medium on the canvas. You can also use it in the kitchen too for stuff haha! I might have to buttercream a cake with it one day!  

Hope you guys like it! It was a success with the client and she loves it!