I have been a bit naughty and not taken many updates of this gorgeous Jack Russell. It has been such a hectic week it just slipped my mind. Anyway I am very pleased with her progress and being the owner of a Jack Russell myself it is really lovely to get a great reference photo and bring out their amazing little characters. My client wanted a head and shoulders portrait so I cropped in a bit closer than the original reference photo. I really want to capture her dark, soulful eyes. Jacks have beautiful big eyes. Love them
Here is the reference photo used for the painting.
I have been rushing around so much, I haven’t really had the chance to take many progress shots of Molly or even think about her blog much.
I have one photo that I took at the beginning, I think it is also because I am so familiar with the breed I got so absorbed in her portrait I didn’t think to pause and take a picture.
Here in the photo below you can see the beginning stages where I have blocked in her eyes and started on her face. As usual I will be building up the layers and putting down the base layer of colour, ready for the details later.
The next one jumps to Molly pretty much finished apart from the final details and tweaks. She is sitting on a lovely reddish brown sofa with a patterned blanket underneath. I decided the blanket is too fussy and will detract from her, but I loved the richness of the red colour that I wanted to still incorporate in the background. As you can see from the photo below I have made it slightly redder. It really is such a rich colour and makes Molly’s white boy really stand out. I definitely think it is the right choice. I shall get the background finished tonight, add a shadow under her and put on the finishing details ready to scan tomorrow. I want to get her scanned in before this supposed storm arrives just in case we lose power. I am really hoping so much we don’t as I it will be a nightmare as far as my work schedule goes!
I realised I never uploaded the finished scan of Molly, I am really pleased with red background. I think it really makes Molly stand out as she has quite a lot of white on her. I chose a really lovely dark wood frame to complete the whole look.
Here is Molly all finished, ready to be framed. I would be interested to hear what you think of my background choice as it is not a colour I would usually pick for my pet portraits.
And here she is all framed. I love this frame, it works with so many pet paintings
I am delighted I am finally also have found a spot in my house where I can take a photo without too many annoying reflections off the glass!