My Mom has a beautiful dog named Abby that is a mix of lab and hound. The sweetest dog ever – never barks doesn’t bite and just loves people. It has been a while since I have done a painting of a dog so for Christmas this year I wanted to try and do a painting of Abby for them. I didn’t tell them what image I was working from but there was a lot of talk about capturing the essence of Abby in the painting.
The last dog painting I did was of a purebred white Lab. The image the client gave me had mostly white, light yellows and subtle browns in it. A Lab doesn’t have much definition to the fur, there were blocks of color, blended together to make the painting look more realistic. My only concern about doing a painting of my mom’s dog was the fur – how was I going to differentiate the different areas and how to make it look like fur. Abby has very defined areas of fur, there are parts where the undercoat is a dark brown and there are strains of light brown or golden blonde hairs on top. Do they make a single hair paint brush to make each hair by hand? Working with acrylic painting it was easy to layer the paint to show the texture of the fur and the whiskers of the snout.
To really do this painting right and make sure I got the color accurate, I had to divide the painting into sections. I started with was the eyes and the nose. As soon as I captured the color of her eyes I moved on to the black around the eye and the ears, eventually the body. The areas where the dark black/brown fur and the golden blonde fur met is where I had to focus. I used a dry brush, and pounced the paint brush to help develop the layers in the area. Then I went back with a thin liner paint brush that had the color of paint mixed with a tiny bit of water to make the individual furs. Adding a little bit if water helps make a very fine tip and provides a smooth line to the paint as it is applied.
As I worked through the painting, I wanted the dog to the focal point so I simplified the floor and the background behind the animal. I wanted to suggest the furniture and the carpet the dog was sitting on without putting too much detail into it. I still wanted the rug to have its deep red to make Abby pop. To make the rug look richer, I did an underpainting of cobalt blue and then layered cadmium medium red and cadmium extra-deep red. I swirled in raw sienna to add texture to the rug. At the same time, I wanted the shadow under the dog to be just as real. So, I painted layers of Prussian blue, raw umber and venetian red and blended them into the “rug.” to simplify the background. I wanted to make the sofa look like the sofa in the original image, I just changed the angle slightly. To add texture, I blended raw sienna, burnt sienna and raw umber to show the texture and the shadow in the folds of the sofa.
The result was amazing. People that knew Abby were amazed that I was able capture the sparkle just right in her eye. The painting really looked just like Abby. Even the position of the dog in the painting was a very iconic position for her, just relaxing.
Do you have a pet? Would you like a portrait of your pet? Adding a painting of your pet to the walls of your home is a great way to celebrate pets and the joy that they bring to our lives. Please feel free to contact me for more information on doing animal portraits. I can be reached at moore_kristina@outlook.com.