"Yes, Virginia Egnor, there is a Santa Claus!"

"Dagmar" (in progress) ©Kathy Ferrell 2011, 8x10", acrylic on board

I wanted to take a little time this afternoon and share with you my progress on my painting of "Dagmar" for the W.V. Division of Culture's Historic Figures Exhibit. See the previous post for more information about my subject! I had a little trouble getting past the background. It really looked pretty muddy there for a while, but I pressed on, and now I like it. Those initial painting stages can be a horrifying experience sometimes. "Oh, God, why is it so YELLOW???!!", that sort of thing.

My fans ask me, nay, beg me for more pics of works as they progress, so in the interest of magnanimous Christmas cheer, I give you this report on how the sausage gets made here at Cup O Swank. My art is quite similar to sausage, really. I aim for good taste in the finished product, but things usually look pretty tacky midway. Enjoy!

In the transfer step, I smudged it badly with my big Irish mitts. More work for me!

I used Corel Painter to loosely work out my color scheme. A real time-saver!

The first step in painting is to outline darks, to seal the carbon & keep it from disappearing into the paint!

Here's the part where I was utterly horrified. Husband listened to me rant for an hour, I had cocoa and pressed on. You can see my awful fingerprints. :(

At this half-way point, I'm ready for a break!

Until next time! More soon!

©Kathy Ferrell and “Big Cup O'Blog” (blog about Cup O Swank Studio), 2011. Unauthorized use and/or duplication of this material without express and written permission from this blog’s author and/or owner is strictly prohibited. Excerpts and links may be used, provided that full and clear credit is given to Kathy Ferrell and Big Cup O'Blog with appropriate and specific direction to the original content.