Portrait Marathon: Dorie begins

What a cute lady she is!  Lookit her, in her little pirate bonnet!  Too funny!

This is the photo as I received it.  As you can see, it's posed well, but it's very dark.  You can't see her eye color, and her nose is indistinctly lost in general darkitude.

So, enter Photoshop!  This is my working reference.  Stuff has a way of evolving while I'm painting, as some of you may have noticed, but this is my general idea for now.

It's already been an interesting morning!  We went for a walk with the dogs up our country road, and past a meadow with a new crop of young dairy cows.  Each new herd of "cow girls" seems curious enough about us to follow us along the fence, up a long hill, and then back down on the way back.  Sometimes they moo a bit, and I can't help but reply.  This time, I tried to start the conversation, as the cowgirls were gallumphing up the muddy hillside, and Pogo growled and barked at them!  He's never bothered about them before, but it occurred to me that maybe he thought my low moo was a growl, so we must be growling at them!

When we got back, I got a call from our next door neighbor that one of his miniature cows had given birth, and did I want to come see the new baby?  I was over in a flash!  They're not particularly tame, so we didn't get more than 10' or so close, which was making Mama Cow a bit nervous as it was.  Baby was up, trying to nurse, but her udder seemed barely more than an unbred heifer's, to my inexperienced eye, and she didn't let Baby get a good shot at it while we were there, anyway.
Neighbor called to say he'd checked Baby out, and she's a girl, and that she had managed to suckle a bit, but I'm still wondering about the udder size.  He's going to look it up.  These are his first go at this breed.

Meanwhile, the goldfinches are here finally, just in time for the dandelions to begin to go to seed.  We saw some yellow (golden?) crowned finches the other day, too.  Pretty little things.  AND the first garter snakes are making their appearances!  The apples and crab apples are beginning to bloom, the grass is already setting seed, last years overgrown collards are flowering ...  Spring!!  YEAY!!