This is the 3rd of the Cavalier dog portraits I had to do for my lovely client who rescues them. Jasper is a real sweetheart as you can see from the reference photo.
I have cropped in tighter to the reference photo so it fits the 13×11 crop all the other portraits have been done to, and to keep it similar style wise as well as they are all tight crops. I will be doing the same sepia to pale sepia background also to match the other dog portraits. This will be the 5th I have done for my client and I hope I get some more to do as I love painting their sweet little faces. Such a lovely breed of dog.
I have made good progress, but stupidly I forgot to take a photo of the sketch to upload. I wanted to do a time lapse, but realistically it’s not going to happen as getting consistent studio time is hard as I have two excited children off school for the Christmas holidays now!
So far I have been mainly blocking out the colours and shapes of Jasper, picking out where the highlights and shadows are. And of course done most of the work on the eyes. Don’t like it when I don’t have the eyes looking at me! It is quite unsettling looking at empty eye sockets when you are painting. Plus I really like to get them right as they are the most important part of any pet portrait.
I have made good progress on Jasper today. It is pretty much the final details and the background to go for his portrait. As I said I will be keeping the background the same as the other two. I am looking forward to seeing it done. I need to make some tweaks to his mouth, but I think I shall see what it looks like with the background on first as that always leads to re-establishing of details due to the nature of the soft pastels shedding dust on the portrait. So that can all be done as one job. I really wanted to get his portrait finished for delivery for Christmas eve, but I have just run out of time. If I hadn’t had this blasted cold, twice it would have been ok, but my client knew it might not be ready and it was agreed when the deposit was taken so it is fine.
I have now finally finished the last portrait of 2018, well that is unless I get itchy hands and start the next one, which I probably will. It is going to be a lovely horse portrait. Anyway, more on that in another blog.
Jasper has had the background done to match the other two and I have added the final details. I just need to sign him in the morning and do a last once over as I pack him up. I hope I get to see them all framed together on the wall my client has had them framed. He decided to get all three framed himself to match the previous two portraits I have completed for him.
Here is the completed portrait and my client is delighted. You can read about the other two here. My client would also like to have another two portraits commissioned in the New Year which is great. Soon there will be a whole wall of them! Well seven in total. More about that as and when I hear about future commissions.