Sadie - Take 3

I'm stuck in my brain about how to mix Wingnut's lighter colors, so I diverted to painting Sadie for the third time today.  In many cases, three is the magic number.  For this one, my guess is that four might be the magic number.  Still, I feel good about the improvement each time.

I did the sketch at work at lunch today.  It was on a 5 inch square surface.  It made the drawing harder, since I'm using a version of the above picture that is 8 inches square.

Here is the finished painting (a/k/a my third attempt).  The nose is getting better!  I'm also pleased with the lighter background.  I don't know why, but for a long time it was really, really hard to paint lighter backgrounds. Sadie is still a little too dark. Also, her eye color is hard. They should stand out more. There are so many orange and brown colors, I'm not sure how to do it.

This was my second attempt, painted in mid-August:

This was my first attempt, painted in mid-June: