Portrait of Max

Here is the beginning of the underpainting for a portrait of Max. This is the next painting in my “Up Against the Wall” series.
The drawing is done freehand in charcoal directly on the gessoed panel. Once I had the drawing the way I wanted it I painted in the major lines of the composition. The background will be a ruined wall from a New Mexican pueblo. I started blocking in the color of the adobe and mortar of the wall. The next step will be to add more color to complete the underpainting.