Mason

After an off-handed comment the other day from the wife -- something about me not painting any new paintings for our own walls for quite some time -- I set about painting her an early Valentine's present. This, a painting of our son Mason, was meant to be a quick paint-sketch, but I kept going with it -- perhaps too far, perhaps not. It still has some of the "freshness" I wanted from the beginning though it lost some of the delicate brushstrokes in the face. The mouth, teeth, and jaw are probably a bit off as well, but I'm done with it and happy with it. Hard to look at it without tilting my own head to the right.

Mason 2-11, 12x12, N/A

The reference photo was of Mason and "his" dog Molly . . . his arm half-strangling her and Molly squinting and waiting patiently for release from the uncomfortable hold. It was cute, but I wanted a painting with Mason's head filling most of it, so I dropped the Molly part -- maybe in another painting -- and replaced her with a pillow of sorts [to explain the head tilt, I suppose]. The painting took around three hours, give or take -- hard to keep up with time when creating. Finished three other paintings yesterday -- I'll post those later. That is all.