This Little Piggy

I have a cousin who recently started raising some pigs. This little guy’s mama died shortly after he and his sister (?) were born, so my cousin is now a piggy mama!

 Anyway, she posted these adorable pics online and I was hooked. So weeks ago I did this little sketch. I have so many sketched that I never get to painting. But I knew this little piggy deserved to be painted! 

Now, I loved the sketch but I did it in a Canson mixed media sketchbook which is not good paper if I need to do any serious watercolor. If I’m just screwing around and testing colors or using a waterbrush its fine. And that’s what I do in a sketchbook most of the time. But for some reason I got out the regular brushes, paints and a big old container of water. I used too much water and the paper buckled. I overworked somet things trying color combinations. I scrubbed the right ear and ruined the paper making it impossible to fix. So, this didn’t go as planned. But a sketch is not a finished painting. Sometimes I like them better than the finished painting. Sometimes I don’t. This has many mistakes and bad color choices. Some things that worked (eyes & nose ), some things that didn’t (mouth & right ear) and some things that sort of worked (colors on the right ear, shadows on the left ear. Some shadows work, others are muddy).  And that’s what a sketch is all about. 

This little piggy is cute, but not what I had in mind. Sometimes one go around is all it takes for me to lose interest. Not every inspirations will pan out and I don’t waste time anymore on something that doesn’t interest me. But this little guy... I love him! Even though the sketch wasn’t successful I am still intrigued. I will retry him on good paper now that I know my colors and what I want to say. I wanted to include his cute butt and curly tail, so we will see what the finished painting looks like. Stay tuned. This little piggy may go to market!!