Finished "The Approaching Horror" acrylic 8x8 on canvas board
Thank you anyone who looks or comments, I appreciate it very much.
I’m still a newbie at acrylics.
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Photo of the painting in indoor lighting
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My reference photo wasn’t that great, Bobo was resting on my arm and I snapped the photo with one hand…
But I liked his expression so wanted to turn it into a painting.
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My teacher started me with trying to do still lifes. Then something inspired me to paint my friend’s cats and dogs. I haven’t looked back since. I’d love to do portraits , but so far only one or two have come out good and those required extensive feedback from my teacher. On the other hand, my dogs and cats come much easier and I only get one or two critiques from my teacher to finish them off. Here is my latest. I really struggle if my reference photo isn’t really good.
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I am still learning from a teacher. Having someone critique my painting and give suggestions is so valuable. After he points something out, I think duh, I should have seen that. Sincerely your work is excellent. I also remember a beautiful cat you did with pastels that was also wonderful! I posted a few more of my pet portraits below in reply to another comment 🙂
remembering correctly? Here are a few of my favorites 🙂
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Are you thinking of this one?
If so, thank you for the kind compliment!
is sitting on so I referred back to how loosely you painted your carpet. 
human.
I titled that one the dog who stole the grinch who stole Christmas. Though he didn’t really still the grinch and it is apparently his favorite toy year around.
There is a matte spray and a shiny spray. Then anything I do next if it doesn’t work I wipe it off with turpenoid. But I’ve certainly created a mushy mess by trying to do too much at once. Another trick I learned is to paint the first couple of layers very thinly with diluted paint so it dries faster and I don’t create a muddy mess in the beginning. The dog looking directly at you laying on the burgundy cushion is an example of doing all my layers thinly. That painting took very few days to complete and seemed to go very smoothly. I think I have a tendency to load too much paint on my brush so intentionally watering it down to go on lightly has worked for me.
You have an eye for detail. Try smooth-sanded gesso on masonite for a ground. The sharpness of close-up foreground hair and blades of grass will really jump when edges are not diffused by the weave of canvas.
On edit: You may already know this, but a small, long-haired brush they used to call a rigger (for painting rigging on sailing ships) is perfect for painting close-up hair, whiskers, and fur. And regarding previous comments about the brightness of acrylics, you can subdue brightness where you might not want it by the judicious and very light addition of neutral shades of grey or brown to the brighter colors, or a lighter glaze over a neutral underpainting. It took me a while to fine-tune that technique, but then, I've been at it professionally for nearly 60 years, so I'm starting to get the hang of it. My preferred medium is watercolor. 
I’m really a newbie and have so much to learn, both in oils and acrylics. It’s kind of frustrating at this level because I feel I make nothing but mistakes.
Yeah, I should have put a few coats of gesso, sanding each layer, to smooth out this canvas panel. Normally I do, but I had just had a week of nothing but failed attempts at painting my cat in oils, and I felt this painting would surely be a failure as well. I was trying acrylics thinking, well at least I will be able to paint over my mistakes sooner since it dries faster. But I had no hope I would end up with a painting that was anything but garbage, so I thought, why bother putting effort into preparing the canvas if I’m just going to throw it out when it’s done?
I love painting on paper for oils actually. A bit cheaper, no gesso needed, and the finished paintings take up little storage space. I guess if I had one that I really liked, I could mount the paper onto wood or something to be able to hang it on the wall.
But I feel I need to learn and practice for a decade before I can expect to have paintings I really like.hain
Believe it or not, I did use a rigger brush for the whiskers. Either I didn’t dilute the paint enough to let it flow well or else I didn’t handle the brush properly, maybe used too much pressure on the brush. I really do have so much to learn, and need hundreds of hours of practice before I start to feel even the most basic low level competence.
I can see why most people give up on art if they do even try it, because at least for people like me, it feels like trying to climb the tallest mountain one tiny step at a time.
But I am really drawn to art for some reason, so I’m going to keep trying.
Thank you again so much!
Did you struggle when you first began doing art, like the first year?
Here are my attempts at oil painting my cat which literally left me in tears I was so frustrated.
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I haven’t thrown those away because I don’t want to waste the oil primed canvas boards, figured I would paint over this and keep trying to get it right but I feel I am just spinning my wheels with those oil paintings.
... and hardest thing to learn is patience. Any endeavor requiring fine motor skills takes time. LOTS of time. Patience was not something that came naturally to me when I was young, that's for sure! I wanted to see it DONE! It's frustrating, I know, but trying for a masterpiece with every painting is self-defeating. Though, looking back on previous pieces, you'll realize that you learned something through making mistakes. You've got a good eye for color and composition, so that's a really good head start.
The Old Masters, and the new ones, compartmentalized the aspects they knew they had to learn and improve, so they did studies. LOTS of studies. sketches of hands – or paws – and studies of eyes, ears, and noses, the direction of hair growth, can all be incredibly valuable. And when you combine what you've learned from these little drawings, you'll find that, HEY! this ain't half bad!
Getting really good at this is hard; that's why so few people try it. But you're already pretty darned good, so hang in there. Don't succumb to frustration by demanding excellence of yourself that you haven't practiced enough to attain... yet. You'll get there, and doing studies will give you satisfaction in manageable mouthfuls, if you'll forgive a weird metaphor.
As soon as I figure out how, I'll post some of my work, though my catalog was severely diminished by a computer crash not long ago. Bad words were said that day, I'll tell ya what!
was dissatisfied with and works on it. He might not have touched it for a year or more. He says small changes can make a huge difference to the painting. I tried it recently and indeed just doing a few things I couldn’t see originally to do made a nice improvement
