Preparing for the National Show!

I don't know if it will ever happen, to be juried into a National Show, but I am attempting it!  I decided to go with painting a flamingo in a very unique position.  I took the photo at Sunken Gardens a few years ago.  I know I want to do this painting large, so I got my canvas I had out of storage of a painting I never finished.  Well, actually I did finish it, I painted it small and dismissed the desire to paint it large.  But I kept the canvas, as large canvases aren't cheap.  It's a gallery wrapped canvas, so I will not have to frame it!  The canvas is 24" wide by 48" high.  I haven't worked large in a long time, but this is something I have wanted to paint for a long time.

Here is the canvas with a print out of the photo I'm working from, but I'm having difficulty getting a good print out of the photo to work from because I shot it in "RAW" so the file is too big for it all to fit in the confines of a standard piece of paper.  I wasn't about to let technology get to me, so I took a photo of computer screen where I have the image saved and also did it on my iPad.  I've found working from an image on an iPad gives me greater insight to the brightness I'm looking for in my paintings.

See how you can see the Thalo blue color on the canvas?  I'm doing thin layer of Titanium White to cover them up before I start painting.  I'm on layer number three.  On the right you see the attempt to print out the photo I'm trying to work from, and you can barely see the head of the flamingo!  

This photo came out a little blurry but it shows how much I need to work to get the canvas to start with a clean white surface...there's so much work needed to cover up that blue!  I have a ceiling fan running so it dries quicker.  

Here's the attempt of taking a photo from my iPhone and transferring it to my iMac so I can print out the whole flamingo.  Oh, technology, sometimes it works in our favor and sometimes it's a real pain!  Regardless, I am looking forward to this painting.  

That's all for today.