finding the right photo

Last week I chose a photo to start sketching from some photos of dogs and cats I've received from friends and family.  I chose a little white haired Westie mix and started sketching.  The beginning was going ok, but as I went on, it became excruciating.  I had to MAKE myself sit there and do it!   I kept going for a little while and then put it down.  Only to return to it the next day and after a bit of time I determined it wasn't worth trying right now because I'm afraid to try a white animal.

I switched to an orange cat owned by a friend of mine and it was just horrendously hard right from the get go.  So today, I scrapped that one, too.  My friend also has an orange and white cat, Shamrock, and I began sketching out a picture of him today.  Well, I've decided to stick to this one all the way to the end.  No matter how terribly hard it is to stay seated and continue sketching.

Shamrock is that big guy in the back

I think the biggest problem with the two I scrapped was that I don't like the photos.  The animals are cute, but the photos have their problems.  I know, being in this business that I'm going to have to get used to making poor photos look awesome, but now is not really the time for that.  Now is time to just get a few more paintings under my belt, if nothing else than as evidence to myself that I can do this!

I know from the Legacy painting that frustration will happen.  Well, it's not frustration, I'm not even sure what to call it.  It's like such extreme concentration that I can only take it for so long.  And 'so long' is usually only about 5-15 minutes!  And then I just have to get up and walk away.

I was thinking that I haven't really sat down and tried to really paint in such a very long time because I never had the long-suffering patience to endure anything but instant gratification.  I wonder if other painters just sit and sketch and paint for hours or if they, too, paint in short little bursts and then get up and go about the rest of their day because that short burst was just too much?

And since we're talking about it, I'll share my time goal with you: I'm trying to sketch/paint for 15 minutes solid with no interruptions twice a day.  That usually works out to those times being back to back, because I really only get time when the kids are sleeping.

I've never drawn a cat before and I'm having serious issues with the ears.
But here we go! 

So, check back for some more in the next few days.  I'm hoping to be done with the sketch and moving on to painting by the end of this week!