A Beginning....Leopard WIP

I am finally back to my easel!  The past few weeks have been a bit of a blur and I'm sorry I didn't get anymore of our travel photos posted.  That is the problem with keeping two blogs.  Since we were in travel-mode I focused on my Travel Blog and unfortunately the painting blog was left to fend for itself....LOL!
Now we are back in Lafayette Indiana and I have started a new painting.  This guy was having a relaxing day at the zoo in Desert Springs CA.

 The photo above is at the very beginning of my process.  This is the "ugly" stage of the painting.  I wanted to share this because so many folks don't realize just how "ugly" things can get in the early stages of a painting.  When I was teaching, many of my students would want to "give up" at this point.  I always tried to persuade them to stick it out...take a break....walk away for awhile if needed, but come back and keep going. 

This photo is kinda my "trial and error" part of the painting. My reference photo is above the painting.   I'm trying to see what is going to work in terms of color and texture.  The background is pretty well finished....it took a lot of layers to get the depth and value I wanted to achieve.  One thing I have to keep in mind is that the reference photo....was taken through glass.  So the colors and detail of the leopard are somewhat softened and blurred.  I'm going to make the painting a bit more colorful then the photo!  Thanks for checking out this post and as always....questions, comments, and critiques are all welcome!