Meet Jimbo

This is definitely one of the most difficult things that I've ever painted.

(acrylic, A3)

Why? Because of his fur. I found it really challenging to do, as there was a fine line between dabbing huge blobs of paint and using the finest brush I have to add every hair individually. When I used to paint in acrylic, I didn't like the idea of seeing individual brush strokes in my paintings. Now I'm open to experimenting with different techniques and the result is a nice balance of detail without being distracting.

I also learned to simplify things that I see. Jimbo is sitting on concrete and I was going to add a whole load of little bumps and dots to give the background some texture. Fortunately I didn't as the main focus is the dog, not the background. If I added a bunch of extra detail I might as well have uploaded the original photo instead.

Overall, this was difficult but actually quite fun. And I learned a whole load of stuff to do and not do in the future, which is always a bonus. That said I'll probably opt for coloured pencils the next time I try something as detailed as this :)