Progression of a Painting

The following images are of a commissioned painting I recently completed.  It's a square format, roughly 24"X24" on a piece of canvas I stained years ago with solvent based ink.  The canvas is mounted on a wooden support made of 1"x1" pine.

I began this piece just before vacation on the beach in 2012.  I did most of the drawing and early textural work actually sitting on the beach in Virginia.  My best estimate is that there are at least seventy layers of acrylic, ink, sand, glass beads, copper wire, feathers, rice paper, and (I'm sure) some other assorted found objects in the work.

The drawing and overall image is taken from a photograph of a fish that a friend's brother caught near Atlanta.  He had no idea what kind of fish it was and asked me to identify it, drawing on what he thought was my extensive knowledge of fish.  Luckily for me, it was easy to identify: a black crappie, what we in south Louisiana call a "Sac-a-lait."

This image is very different, in a way, from most of my work in that it is a more realistic rendering of a real fish rather that a whimsical invention of my mind's vision of some fantastical sea creature. 

Obviously, there are many more "steps" involved than just three.  But I feel like these three give some idea as to how my process works.  Also, I only took a handful of images in the progression.  Enjoy!