I can’t wait to paint this little character. Just look at his happy, sweet face. You can’t help but smile at it and how pleased he looks with his tennis ball. My client decided to have the grass in the forefront and have it fading out to a plain green background to keep Pip as the main focus and they decided on a 10×8 inch framed portrait. Below you can see the lovely reference photo I have been given to work on. I love the perspective of this one. I normally advice eye to eye, not looking down or up to avoid distortion, but I actually love the way this looks and I think it adds to his happy little character.
Pip is all sketched out ready to start work tomorrow. As you can see the outline of the sketch is all in place and that I have cropped in tighter to Pip to make sure he takes most of the space, but without being cramped. I can make a start as soon as I get back from my nordic walking group which I am looking forward to so much.
I can’t wait to show you the progress on Pip tomorrow. I think I will be smiling the whole way through his pet portrait! Don’t forget you can read about the other portrait I started today.
I have had so much fun painting Pip I got completely carried away with him today and have got him virtually finished! I do love it when a painting comes together as this one has. However at the same time I am sad to see them finished. My client asked for the garden/grass to be faded out into a plain green background as you can see below. I think it works really well in Pip’s portrait.
I have found one of my new favourite colours for brown fur and and even black fur in pet portraits. It seems to add real richness to the portraits. It’s in two ranges. Derwent call it burnt carmine. I am not sure what it is called in the other range, but I love it. It is becoming one of my firm faves and go to pastel for lots of things. A month ago I barely used it. Funny how it goes.
In Pip’s portrait I used it for a lot of the undercoat so to speak and then layer black and brown on the top, and even some highlights.
Anyway here is the portrait. I am afraid it’s not the best photo, but I took it in the dark this afternoon. It’s the only thing along with framing that gets frustrating with the short days as they really are best done under the daylight. I will endeavor to take a better one of all my pet portraits tomorrow! After my Christmas lunch!
I have also done quite a bit more on Amber’s horse portrait. I hope to get her finished tomorrow/Sunday. Ideally and all being well I plan to get my last four pet portraits completed and posted by Tuesday. I am not sure when the last posting day is, but if they are gone by then it should be fine. Nothing is posted just first class. All my commissions go Special delivery or parcelforce 24 hour!
I am so sorry I have been a bit slack updating my blog. I have been a bit under the weather still and just really trying to finish off the last pet portraits. I am going to upload some progress shots and the finished portrait of Pip and write some bits around the portrait tomorrow when I have (hopefully) a little more time!
Below you can see the finished portrait. I feel so bad I haven’t had a chance to scan it in, I really should have done, but if I am perfectly honest I haven’t been feeling well soon. I hope it is all out of the way now so I can get some proper rest over Christmas and get some really long walks in with the dogs. The colours aren’t a true reflection of the painting in this photo. He has been framed in a lovely thin light wood frame which compliments his fur colour nicely and isn’t to thick for the size of the portrait. Tomorrow I will pack it up and send it to the post office, and then I will get a photo of the frame and hopefully the framed portrait.