Kobe gets painted with her favorite toy, the dirty tennis ball.

I started to paint my dog Kobe. After the first day, my son Michael says: "You can't sell that one, it's mine!". Alrighty then.

I tried some different glazing techniques. The first layer was dark brown. I let it dry for a week. I used lots of turpentine to keep the paint thin and quick drying. 2nd layer was more true to the final color, a tad more linseed oil and dammer varnish with still lots of turpentine in the medium. I let that dry for a week. 3rd layer I went off the rails. I added a thinned out very oily transparent layer of Indian yellow deep, a great glowing color I adore. But this is when I have that,"o shit I've made a mistake here" moment. It was while applying that yellow layer that we took the cover photo for this web site. Poor Kobe looked very, very yellow. Thus the black and white cover photo. However, it's always interesting to see my paintings in black and white. It showed nice values and the beginnings of light and dark hues. I knew it could be fixed. I didn't wait very long, about 3 days, I couldn't wait to fix it.

With lots of dammer varnish and linseed oil I worked in very transparent colors. This is when paint can move and change so beautifully with the brush. I kept getting a clean brush to "dust" the color around, dabbing with wet fan brushes, Q tips, rags, glossy watercolor brushes heavy with oily paint - anything in my arsenal to make the color writhe. I love it when the painting gets to this part. I lose track of time. I step away. It's been hours. My back hurts, and I gotta pee. But when I come back into the studio... damn! Did I do that? And there is the "WOW" factor.

I'll hang it in my living room on my temporary viewing wall to glance at it while on the couch at night. If it's not done, back on the easel it will go. If it really is complete, I'll sign it. This one is going to take about a month to dry - lotsa oil.