As promised I am going to be doing a pet portrait focused blog. Things are very busy so I am fining it hard to do this for lots of my pet portraits, but as this is a very large portrait at 20×16 inches it is going to take longer to work on, so I will be able to dedicate some time to a blog about it.
These two gorgeous dogs are going to be a pleasure to paint. My client liked a specific photo of the two dogs, but they were sitting in front of gate and some shrubs. It would have worked fine for a background, but I did think a background in another photograph would work better. I did a quick mock up for my client and she agreed it looked better, so we are going for grass, a lake edge and some bracken in the background.
I have now made a start on the pair. I have restablished the outline of the two dogs to make sure I don’t lose it when working on the background. I may tweak it slightly from the reference photo and add some sky in to the background to balance it out a bit, but I shall decide as the painting progresses.
Here is a photograph of the progress so far.
More progress has been made. It is very slow progress blocking in the details on the dogs as they are still quite small despite the overall size of the portrait. More progress will be made this afternoon
It is very much at the messy/ugly stage, but that will all change as I pull all the pieces of the portrait together so watch this space!
This has been taking some time to come together. I haven’t really taken many more photos as it went through an even uglier stage, I was unsure of my direction in the background too. I keep fiddling around with it. However Max an Tia are now beginning to come together nicely I think. I am afraid I only have phone photos as it is so big it would take an age to scan. However I think I feel a lot more confident with how it is going and it will all click together very soon. The grass needs more detail adding and the bracken on the hills I want to be out of focus , but not dramatically so. I was using my big soft pastel sticks, but I didn’t like how they were working out so I have removed most of it and I am going to return to my trusty pencils!
Below is the latest photograph I have taken of the portrait, but now it is clicking I really hope it will get motoring now and fall into place! Watch this space!
Sorry they have come out wonky. I will correct them when I get back on my laptop. I am shattered as I have been working flat out on about 6 different things today. I have worked some more on the bracken behind Max and Tia and I think I am happy with how it is slotting together now. I won’t take a photo until the morning though as it just won’t show. I have also added a bit of details to the cloud behind them, just subtle and I think that gives the portrait a bit extra too. I can go to sleep happy now and revisit it tomorrow!
I am sorry I haven’t managed to update the blog tonight! I worked really hard on it this morning and then took a couple of hours off this afternoon to catch up with my friend, my first few hours off all week! However the background seems to be heading nicely in the right direction and I will definitely get a photograph of my progress tomorrow. I want to keep my focus mainly on that for now and then I can bring it all together with max and tia’s portraits! I can’t wait to see their pet painting finished.
I have really managed to get to grips with this gorgeous duos pet portrait the last two days. All being well I think it will be finished tomorrow or Tuesday. It have been one of those pet portraits that has proved a little more tricky, but they are oh so satisfying when they come together. The sense of achievement is great and I love something that stretches me as an artist as that is how I grow and improve.
It needs some work on the grass and their paws and some tiny finishing touches, the reason it may run in to Tuesday. Just to make sure my eyes are fresh and can pick up those details, and then I can email my client.
Here is a photo showing yesterday and today’s work. Again apologies for the wonky photograph. I will correct them!
I have to say, this was a great piece to work on and I think I am pretty much there now. Unless I see anything over the next 24 hours. I did scan it in tonight as it does help me spot things that may be off or need tweaking. I am really pleased with how it has turned out and how the background works with the overall feel of the piece and my initial thoughts on it have pretty much worked out how I envisaged.
So here is the scan of the final dog portrait and it looks so much better than those rubbish phone photos don’t you think?
So Max and Tia finally got posted today. I so hope the recipients are over the moon with their pet portrait when it arrives. They chose a lovely frame to go with the painting. It has a shabby chic look about it with some gold around the edge. I usually pick a double off white mount to go with my portraits, but my client wanted a green one. I am never sure about coloured mounts and whether they will work, but I actually really like this one. I did order a double off white just in case, but as I say it suited the frame and the portrait really fabulously. Te mount picked out the lighter blades of grass in the painting and complimented the rest of the green very nicely.
Here are some photos of the frame.
Unfortunately due to time constraints I didn’t get a chance to take a photo of the portrait fully framed. I must remember to do so next time. However I am framing Seren’s portrait next so I will make sure I do.