Wednesday, April 30, 2014

Flat Coated Retriever Dog Portrait Painting in Pastel

Words truly cannot express the feelings I experience when the client unwraps their portrait and I get to see their reaction as they finally view it in person for the first time. I often find it overwhelming actually, that through my artistic creations I am able to evoke intense mixed reactions of comfort, joy, sadness and perhaps even closure for the owners as they remember their cherished pet. This, in addition to the heartfelt comments I receive, indicate to me that I indeed succeeded in portraying the animal's true character and likeness... just reward for my efforts.


"Galoche"
pastel on suede
11"x14"
Commissioned Portrait

Friday, April 25, 2014

The start of painting the dog face


With the background complete, I now am excited to finally start painting fur! Until all the main features of the face are added, I find that a portrait always looks ghostly at this stage. You'll see once I add the mouth, this dog's expression will undoubtedly change.

Stay tuned folks! I'm working hard at finishing this in the next few days even though I am teaching a 2-day workshop booked for this weekend.  I hope to be able to pull it off!


W

Wednesday, April 23, 2014

Garden flowers background for dog portrait

Here are two progression shots of the background work for this dog portrait. Having the dog sitting in front of this particular garden is very important to the client since both have great sentimental value. Huge Annabelle hydrangea bushes and giant Hosta lilies make up the vegetation in this particular garden plot and will contrast well against the black coat of this cherished companion.  

The composition below is actually the combination of two different photographs combined together.


Friday, April 18, 2014

Flatcoated Retriever Pet Portrait

Here's a bit more work I've been doing on the backdrop for this wonderful garden setting.  The black dog will stand out well against the greenery and interspersed flowers.

By the way, this dog is said to be a cross from a setter/dalmatian/flat coated retriever. Quite the perfect model she is!


Tuesday, April 15, 2014

Dog Portrait Commission from photo

I will be working this special commission in between others to reach deadlines. Can anybody guess the breed?

I am using pastels on archival suede which is one of my favorite supports, and the portrait measures 11x14. I hope you will follow me and that you will enjoy watching this piece progress!


Multiple Cat Portrait with Tonkinese in progress

Currently at my easel is a commissioned portrait of 6 very interesting felines.  The cat breeds that I am painting include Siamese, Tonkinese, Burmese, Scottish Fold and a domestic short haired tuxedo. 

Some of the photos I received as reference material are very old and the subject not very well represented but I managed to make out some detail by scanning at very high resolution and blowing up the image on my computer screen. Of course, I also rely on the client to guide me as I paint the subject so that the resemblance is most accurate as possible.  The blue point Siamese cat to the very left will need some touching up before I add the whiskers. I'd like to note that the magenta hue on his coat is the result of my bad photography!

The easiest cat to paint so far is the middle black and white "tuxedo" cat. The reference photos were very good so this made my task much easier.

The cat to the very right (with the unfinished body) is a Tonkinese. It was challenging to reproduce his coat color but with careful layering and blending of several different pastel colors, I believe to have achieved a pretty good likeness. 

Make sure to stay tuned as there's more to come soon!