My Portrait of Taz: Here's the Weird Part

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Hey, sorry it's been so long since my last installment! Thank you for being so patient. Last time, I had finished the background completely, and I had added some color here and there to start establishing various areas of lights and darks and to indicate where Taz's markings were so I would have some indicators to follow. This is because with the entire canvas surface covered by paint, the drawing that originally contained all of the information will be lost. And BOY, does it EVER get lost! To be honest, this part has always left me a little nervous, because I am an illustrator at heart. I am used to working with graphic media (pen and ink, graphite, colored pencil, marker - basically the stuff you use on paper), and you get to keep your drawing during that entire process. With pastel and paint, you start with a nice sketch, but at some point, it goes away, and you have to hang on through--well, through THIS. Just LOOK at it! So, what is going on here, anyway? What you are looking at is an underpainting in its first stages. I am taking the next step toward building Taz. I am "re-establishing" his shape on the left side where my work on the cabinet wore him away a bit and making sure that he is taking shape properly on the canvas. I am laying in a mid-range tone (not a "color"- I'll explain in a sec) to do that. So, what's a "tone" and what's an "underpainting"? They are related. Underpaintings are usually done with a greyscale (or a very greyed or muted version of a color - I am using a very warm grey, so it will integrate better with Taz's coat color). In art terminology, "tone" refers to lightness/darkness ("value" also refers to this), so when I say I'm laying in "a mid-range tone", it means I am painting an area with a medium- value version of the color I'm using (in this case, grey) - not too light or too dark. The underpainting is concerned with establishing the subject's form and correct range of value. It can be extremely detailed. Sometimes underpaintings look just like a finished painting, just lacking color. I did an underpainting like that before (in college), and I didn't even bother painting over it, because I liked it the way it was--and honestly, I thought I'd already done a LOT of work! My painting teacher was underwhelmed, lol. Yes, it looks weird and maybe like it's going off the rails a bit, but trust the process. It will look better next time!