pug

(click to see image large)

safe to say, the freakiest painting I have ever done.

I'm not sure why, but I had been hankering to do a painting of a pug dog.
Originally, I had wanted to do a black pug dog against a black background.

I started it, and a little bit in, it occurred to me it would be really interesting, as an exercise, to set a limit on brushstrokes - to allow myself only 300 brushstrokes, no blending, glazing, smudging, mudgy-ing, as I usually do.

I was really fascinated it, until toward the end, when I realized the drawing was very bad - the eyes too close together, the nose too low...to my horror, i realized it looked exactly like an evil little gnome. In order to save the patient, I had to let go of the idea of the 300 brushstrokes.

It still looks weird to me, but at least not gnome freaky weird.

pug
acrylic on panel
6" x 8" x 1 3/4"