'Windswept' FINISHED

Well, finished for now at least! After another 3 hours work getting in the small details I have decided I'm starting to overwork it so have called it a day before I do more harm than good. Will revisit it in a couple of months with fresh eyes and a tiny paintbrush and tweak all the bits that are not quite right as I'm sure to spot plenty as the weeks go by!

Have really enjoyed this painting! The photograph doesn't quite represent it as well as it could which is a shame, but it is the best of a bad bunch (I made my usual trip around the house photographing in different lights and places- about three times!); I find dark coloured oil paintings the very hardest to photograph accurately. Just for you Steph I have put a detail pic below!

So, in terms of time actually spent with a brush in my hand painting (and canvas prepping) this took me 18 hours. Overall time wise it took a week to prep the canvas and then 10 days painting including drying time between layers so 17 days in total to produce. Not bad really for such a big painting! Of course there was the preparatory work, the reference photography that I took to work from, time with the ponies, sketches, the mini oil I did etc. too which was all work towards it but I'm not counting that!

So, 1 down, 5 to go? Another 5 paintings before the end of May would almost seem do-able now, if it wasn't for commissioned work I need to get done too. Was a nice treat having this time just to concentrate on just one of my own paintings but I'm looking forward to getting on with some commissioned stuff too now so my originals will have to take a back seat again.