"Night of the Living Turtles" acrylic painting

I wanted to do a painting that had kind of spooky vibe to it, without it being spooky at all. I've always been a fan of horror movies and zombie flicks, and was trying to create that same tense "it's coming" feeling without it being a horrofic subject. I decided to go with these sweet little baby turtles making there way from the beach to ocean, which can be a pretty terrifying endeavor for these little cherubs. Here are a couple shots of my progress into the final piece.
this is the beginning stage, I always like to start with the background or whatever is furthest back and slowly work my way forward on the piece

after laying down base colors I begin to add little bits of details. Things are still pretty sloppy looking in this stage.

and after adding all my colors and details I can finally move on to adding all the black, it really helps add a crispness to the piece and I can more seriously establish my values with shading. Then before I know it I'm finished, and I can go back and add white highlights if I feel like it's necessary.

Hope all you steemers enjoy this piece and make sure to follow if you want to see more!