How do you say "Bunny" in Polish?

I was commissioned by my best friend to make a special Christmas gift for the niece. She really loves her Bunny stuffy and they figured making an original piece of art celebrating it would make a great gift and more than likely last longer than the stuffed toy. I included my process below.

Sketching this a number of times, this piece gave me a surprising challenge, how to capture the essence of a simple stuffed toy. Once I got the sketch right I increased the design to fill the area to be painted.

I traced the design and transferred it with tracing paper and light grey chalk onto a Baltic birch panel.

I locked down the drawing and added a basic value map with a wash of warm Burnt Sienna paint.

I added middle value lights and darks in grey for my dead colour layer.

I then did some big form modelling in lighter and darker greys to create more form and coloured in the nose.

I knocked back the cool grey with a warm yellowish fur applied with thick strokes of paint to give the effect of the feeling of her soft plush toy.

I added details and brought back the outline with Burnt sienna to help pop the image off of the remaining wooden support. finally I signed and dated it on the back and added picture hanging supplies to the back, wrapped it and delivered it.  I heard she loved it and her mom was so appreciative she shed a tear. Win for the arts!!!

HORSE DRINKING - STAGE 2

I've been painting away. The drawing I did didn't make it. It got covered in paint.

I drew on canvas and before I took a snapshot of the preliminary sketch for a painting, I was knee deep in the paint.  I suppose you could say I was a little excited to get started.  I was asked to do another painting of a horse for the equestrian ranch because the last one was an, and I quote, "awesome painting".

Here is photoed (mind the flash) the second stage of my painting process.  I block in the initial horse with burnt sienna.  Then I put in washes of Yellow ochre, cerulean blue blended with titanium white for the blurry background. My next step is to drip paint form either sides to add more intense blues and ochres to the composition. This also helps to add linear horizontal reference points to base my water ripples.

You can already get a sense of the depth of the background and movement of foreground elements.

My next step is to block in my darkest tones and to use that to establish the middle values.