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!!!

Elephant WIP

Now that I have a tidy space in which to work, I immediately get going on an elephant painting for my Cousin Joe.He and his wife Lisa sent me an example of a piece they saw that they were considering picking up for the room of the daughter they are expecting. I figured I could do better, but as I got working it changed a lot.

 I added a baby elephant since its for a little girls room, I thought that would be a cute addition. I went for more realist style wanting this grand creature to feel physically powerful. When the lights are off there will be a little secret bonus, the tusks and eyes have glow paint.

Here it is as a Work in Progress, I am adding more here and there after sitting with it for more time, if you'd like to see how it came together in sped up time, check out the video below, I time lapsed the process.