Three Bears Final and Process

Finally finished my first piece for the Zero to Illo12 Week Challenge!  I painted for a few hours each night (after I come home from my day job) to finish this. 

I always find that the most difficult part of working on any piece is creating the "final drawing" that comes after the thumbnails and before the final painting.  It always seems to take me forever to get this part done.  The actual painting portion goes much faster.  I plan to continue working on the remaining portfolio pieces through the next weeks and beyond. 

Below are some shots I took as I worked on the piece:

I always start with a warm wash in acrylic -- quinacridone gold or raw or burnt sienna on primed canvas.  Then I lay in washes of the base colors for each section/character.

Then layers of paint are built up in acrylic and acrylic gouache.  In this piece I added some warm highlights with Caran d'ache crayons.

The final finished piece.  Suggestions and comments are welcome!

I'll now be off to start my next piece ...