Cleopatra, my dog

Hello.
I've been working towards my goal to complete a painting per week.  The last painting that I completed yesterday gave me a hard time.  I had to take several breaks, and finally completed it Sunday eventing. By the time I was finished, I thought: Finally, I can get the struggle is over and out of my life. Now I can move on to something new.

Today, after work, I just feel so tired.  My next panel is primed and ready to start the next image.  I'm disappointed with myself because my body is sore all over, and I don't have the energy to start just yet. Hopefully, I'll be able to start something before the evening is over.

In the meantime, here's a portrait I did of Cleopatra, my dog.

Cleopatra. Big New Sketchbook, page 22. Acrylic. Steve Franklin, 2015.

Starting with a thin coat of gesso then airbrushing the phthalo blue and quinacridone magenta (Golden High Flow Acrylics) for the purple background.  Next, I blocked in most of the image using gesso with a flat 1 inch wide brush. Next, using liquid acrylics, I layered the colors with round and filbert brushes.  All this was sealed with a thin coat of acrylic gloss using a small fan brush. Note: when doing glossy acrylic pages in your sketchbook, you must consider one important thing: the opposing page should not be glossy, or the pages might stick together.  To solve this, I either sketch with pencil or watercolor on the opposite page, or use matte medium followed by a layer of beeswax on the surface of the page to avoid having to peel the pages apart.

Thanks for viewing and have a great evening!

-Steve