A Family Portrait Painting of a Different Kind

Hi! Over the summer I created a painting that is slightly out of my realm.  Yes, horses and the occasional cow can be found in my work...but pigs, chicken, and geese aren't. I created this painting as a bit of a challenge.  I loved the idea of creating some sort of family portrait of barn animals.  Below are a few images of the step by step.

Here is one of my first sketches:

image

After sketching a couple different compositions and playing with the placement of my animals, I decided I was ready to start.  I transferred my ideas onto a larger canvas and started painting one animal at a time.  I added a blue wash in the background just to start playing with colour.

image

Bit by bit it started coming together and I eventually got to the point of adding details and highlights.  One of the hardest parts about this painting was creating a nice blue for the background.  For some reason I tend to always leave the backgrounds for the end.  Normally it isn't to hard to paint it in, but because of the amount of creatures that I had to paint around- it became a little tricky.  It was also tricky trying to get a nice smooth and even finish.

image

Anyways, I hope you like the "Family Portrait" I created :)

For all you painters out there -here's a question:  do you paint your backgrounds in at the beginning or at the end? I'd love to hear!  B