Complete Harmony

Well to finish off with my little dog I decided to frame him in the vertical format. I loved the open space in the horizontal format but I decided that he looked a little more forlorn and worried about the weather in the vertical format. Once I finished him I was back to my swans. It has been very difficult working with them as I wanted to preserve the movement in the background color but I needed to do more to define the swans. Of course the critics at home had lots to say which is good but I had to really feel my way with them. I have tried to deepen the rose color in the water to define the one swan and I reshaped and set the other with some ultra marine. Then I darken the shadows everywhere on the swans. They're done and I am quite pleased with the results. When I framed them, they looked great.

Vertical or Horizontal??

Well I have an interesting problem, I have finished the drawing but I have not decided how to frame it. My little dog is definitely hesitant to go out as he surveys the weather outside and I think that my drawing has really caught that spirit. However, when I went to frame him I really couldn't decide which layout I liked best. I decided to post them both and hear what you had to say and also to give myself some time before I decide. Sometimes it is obvious once you have a little space from your picture.

Is the Snow Gone?

Yes, I am getting tired of our winter, actually we don't usually have a winter here. It is unusual to have snow for more than 3 or 4 days and certainly this frozen snow on the ground stuff for 6 weeks is way too much. Enough of my rant though, on with the picture!
I have some lovely pictures of Mojo, my cousin's dog when he was a pup and when I was looking at this picture I knew what I wanted to do. I am not sure of the composition yet but I have my name and center of interest. I am torn between putting other items in the background or just making it all about him. I will work away and see what develops. When he is done I am going to enter him in a show called "Celebration of Spring".

The Painted Lady is on her Way

Well I tried several practice runs before I launched in and added my trees to my picture. I found that I really had to keep them to a minimum or it looked like the house was in a forest instead of with other houses. At the same time I did not want to add other houses to the picture. Here is the final result I hope you like it.
It was very interesting to go to the reference that Jose and Christopher mentioned in their comments as I can see that my house and the two neighboring houses are definitely a very good example of painted ladies. Check it out. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Painted_Ladies

The Painted Lady is nearly done

Yes, my house has a name. I took her to see her owner on the weekend and she was very happy to see how the picture was coming. She tells me that this house and the two beside it are called 'The Painted Ladies' so my picture will be called "The Painted Lady". My job today is to finish her but I do have a problem. Her owner feels the right side of the picture is too bare and would like some trees and/or clouds in the sky. I kind of agree that their needs to be something so using the magic of computers I am trying a few things. Here it is with trees but I think that is too much. I will play with it some more and show you the final picture, hopefully today!!