Here is a painting I've had in my studio for awhile that I decided to re-work. There was something about it that I felt if I changed it would make a better painting. I thought I would take a big risk and re-size it from a 9x12 to an 8x10 by cutting off a portion of the original canvas. After I'd done that I figured it was getting better but now the beard bothered me. I had it so dark on the left side it was hard to see that he was holding a pipe in his hand. I lightened the beard but I still wasn't happy with the look of the hair itself. It wasn't fuzzy enough. I pondered how to make the hair fuzzier without a lot of brushstrokes and came up with an idea. I got some coarse steel wool, mixed some "hair color" on my pallet and got the fibers coated. Then I started daubing the steel wool on the face and I got the hairy fuzzy look I was going for.
By the way, he is the same model with the dog that is in my last blog posting. I have more reference photos so you may see him again in the future.
