Work in progress

I would like to share my progress on a new oil painting I have just started. I am sure it will go through many stages of the uglies as I work on it, but hopefully it will turn out well in the end... so come along with me for the ride with all it's ups and downs.

My reference is a photo I took a number of years ago, but it is still as fresh in my mind as the day I took it. The subject is two whippets relaxing in an interior, there is natural lighting which is coming from a window that is not in the picture. I have changed the composition slightly from the photo to make a better painting. First, I drew on tracing paper, and then took it to the local copy shop to enlarge my drawing to fit on the 20 x 24" canvas I will be working on. I then transfered the drawing to my canvas with graphite paper. Next I redrew the entire composition with a lot more detail directly on the canvas and spayed it with workable fixative. That is what you see in the first photograph. My next step was a thin coat of acrylic paint to tone the canvas. I used raw sienna. In the last photo, I have lightly done an underpainting in shades of grey to give it a little volume and to help visualize how the lights and darks will work. Of course it will be much bolder when the actual painting begins.