Hells no, buffalo!

The photograph for this painting came from photographer Manu Sharma in India. This was during a festival where horses, cattle, and camels were all ornately adorned:

Photo courtesy Manu Sharma Photography

      Here it is in progress:

I realized at this point that the eye was too small and not quite in the right spot.  I wasn't liking the pink tone on the cheek, either. I started to think more about warm and cool colors, and what parts of the buffalo  were warm or cool. I brushed off the check and tried again:

The eye is much better, and the cool pink is gone but this fleshy color isn't quite right either. I am beginning to get frustrated and can feel my inexperience weighing down on me. Then I remembered a handy tip, look at the painting in a mirror and the issues will jump out at you. I do this with my sculpture except I take a photograph and flip the image on my computer. I also looked at a very small version of the  reference  photo, which helps to see the major shapes and colors and not the details that are far to easy to be prematurely focused on. I brushed off the cheek, again, and this time I got it right:

 Festive Buffalo

SOLD

I wasn't so sure about this one, I liked it and my husband liked it, but was it just too weird? I put it up on Facebook and wouldn't you know, someone bought it right away! I think I will do more bovines.