little girl reading, oil painting, next step

In 2009 I worked at a painting of a little girl and last week I started to work a little bit more at this difficult subject. Of course this large painting is still not finished:-))))
I put three stages of the painting together so you can see the progress.
Click on the picture to see it enlarged.
In real (of course) the painting is longer and the colors are a bit different and lighter.
I get so frustrated about taking photos of my work.
When I scan a painting the result is a bit better, but this painting is far to large to scan it.

snowleopard first layer of fur

I started to paint the first layer of fur, still very roughly.

In the precious layers I used Liquin, so I could paint every day a next layer.

But with this layer I used linseed oil, so I have to wait  till this layer is dry before I can add more layers.

5th layer snow leopard oilpainting

Again, I worked a bit at this painting. I made it softer. Now I have to begin to paint fur.

snow leopard oilpaint first stages

I added some color to the painting.  I wanted to make the base more solid and to give it more shape and depth that's why I added this layer of color. Far too much color for a snow leapard but I will build up light/white hairs on top of this layer. I also made the spots and the dark colors very dark, again I will put white hairs partly over these black and brown spots. The whole painting will become more softer. This is the first time I paint fur, so this is an experiment, I hope it will work.

snow leopard oilpaint first stages

I started a painting of a snow leapard. It is a study, I never have painted such a subject with oilpaint.
I have a book about drawing and painting animals by Edward Aldrich and this snow leapard is one of his examples. I do not want to make an exact copy, I want to make the painting more loose.
These are the first three stages, still very basic with not much detail yet.


The painting is of an A4 size, approx 20x30 cm and I use MDF as a base. It is 1,6 cm thick.
I put on several layers of gesso and sanded between the layers.
I painted the gesso also on the sides and on the back. Than I put a couple of white layers of acrylpaint on the surface and put the drawing on and sealed the drawing with transparant white acryl.
The first stage is painted with acrylpaint, the other stages I used Liquin as a medium, so I can work in transparant layers. Later on I will use more linseed oil and less Liquin to get a bit more opaque layers.