Today I posted the last of the finished pet portraits. Steffi and Casi and Bryan, it has given me a little bit of room to move. I have now started my last two pastel portraits for Christmas. One is of a horse and I will be writing about it in this blog and another is of a gorgeous dog called Pip! He has such a happy face.
I sketched both out today and prepped them ready to start work. Bleow you can see the outline of the sketch. I brought his ear forward. You can see the feint outline of the position his ear was in first of all. I am just waiting to hear whether they want the head collar in or not. It looked fairly smart so not 100% sure. More often than not I am asked to remove them, but I sketched it in as it is easier to remove it than it is to add it back in!
I have started filling in the details now. Again I am not sure of the background, will decide as I go along what colour to do it. As you can see in the main I am using blues and purples for the undertones and then I am adding the other colours on top. it will give it richness and depth and I can use it help pick out the highlights in the mane and coat.
It feels really weird to be working on a pet portrait this size. It feels soooooo small after the giant portrait of Cruz. Even the 13×11 inch portraits didn’t feel that small, but this had me double checking I actually had the right size!
I am not sure how much more I will do on this tomorrow as I am going to focus on Pip, and I would really like to try and film some. we shall see, hopefully it won’t play up again while I am filming. You can read about the beginning of Pip’s portrait here.
I have manage a lot more work on Amber’s portrait today for which I am delighted about. It is pretty much her head collar to go now and all the finishing details. Oh and the background. I am off out for my Nordic Walking lunch tomorrow, so when I get back I will finish up and hopefully get approval from the client. I also made good progress on Pip’s portrait. I am also waiting for approval on this portrait too.
Below you can see the finished portrait of Amber, I am really pleased with how this has turned out. It was actually really nice to paint a headcollar. i don’t get the opportunity to paint tack or head collars often and I quite like fiddly details to work on!
I made a little mistake. I am not sure if you can see in the photo below it says Rambo on the head collar. I was meant to change it Amber for my client. I have now done this and you can see the close up. It was very tiny writing and I had to sharpen my pencil to a very fine point to get the detail and letters in!
Amber’s portrait is going to be framed in a black frame, simple wooden black frame. it is one of my favourite black frames for smaller pet portraits. As with Pip I will be packing up and will take a photo of the framed portrait to share then.
