Sheltie Portrait Video
Binx's mom suggested a burgundy background, and I think it looks good with his coat colors.
I filmed video of the painting from start to finish, and sped it up into a 3-minute "speed painting" with music. If you want to see the video in higher resolution, I recommend clicking on the YouTube icon on the bottom right of the window, which will take you to the video in YouTube. Then click on the HQ option on the bottom right. Here's the video:
More Ferret Sketches
I don't usually draw much, but I love drawing ferrets. They have such unique, spirited personalities. Our ferrets loved nothing more than stealing socks. Here's a ferret in the laundry basket:
Ferrets also love to dig:
Read the rest of this post...Ferret Sketches
I've been working on illustrations for a children's book written by my father-in-law. It's a nice story about a young family preparing for a move while awaiting the birth of a new baby. It's based on a story from my childhood.
The family in the book runs an animal shelter in the country. Parts of the story are narrated by their pet ferret. This ferret loves to cause trouble and steal things, and does a happy dance when she's victorious. She's my favorite part of the book. Here are some sketches of her in action:
Mollie's Painting Video
I've finished my portrait of Mollie, the winner of the Dog Blog's photo contest on Dogster. For the first time, I filmed the painting from start to finish. I sped up the footage into an 8 minute "speed painting" and posted it on YouTube. Check it out:
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Sabrina and Ollie's Finished Portrait
Mollie the Bloodhound - Sketch
I've made a sketch of Mollie for her portrait. Mollie's mom and I chose this photo of her:
Here's my sketch of Mollie:
Three Dogs at the Park, Finished Portrait
I'm finished my portrait of Copper, Kensy and Logan. I'm really pleased with how it turned out. I painted in Copper and Logan first, but Kensy was more of a challenge. With the help of Kensy's mom and some additional photos, I made small changes to the original until I got a good likeness.
Here's the finished portrait, and a closeup of Kensy:
Congratulations Mollie!
Mollie is the winner of Dogster's Picture Perfect photo contest on the Dog Blog. Mollie is a rescued Bloodhound/Pointer mix from Ontario, Canada, and she beat over 100 other entrants. What a great smile!
Bernese Mountain Dog in Progress
I've been working on my portrait of Copper, Logan and Kensy. I began with Copper and then painted Logan. Here's Copper and Logan together:
Sabrina's Pit Bull Portrait
I'm working on my portrait of Sabrina and Ollie. I worked on Ollie last week, and now I'm adding Sabrina before painting in the background. You can see a printout of Sabrina's original photo taped onto the canvas for reference.
Here's her portrait so far:
Like Ollie, Sabrina has many complex colors in her coat - greys, purples and browns. I used a similar mix of colors to Ollie's portrait, but with more yellows and warm browns. I started with a purple underpainting:
Three Dogs at the Park, Sketch
I'm working on a portrait of three dogs relaxing in a field. This portrait has an extra-long aspect ratio at 12"x24", so I chose poses that would fit well into the space and make room for a nice landscape background. Here are Copper, Logan and Kensy with their family:
Ollie and Sabrina, Sketch
I rarely get to meet the dogs and people I paint, so I'm thrilled to be painting two dogs I know very well, Sabrina and Ollie. Sabrina is a Pit Bull/Weimaraner mix and Ollie is a Standard Poodle. Both dogs are service dogs. I painted Sabrina several years ago before she retired and passed on her job to Ollie.
Read the rest of this post...Painting of Sparky the Betta Fish
This is a portrait I painted for myself of one of my own pets, my beloved betta fish Sparky. Sparky lives in deluxe accommodations in a filtered, planted tank. Although it doesn't show up in this photo, when I take photos of him from slightly below, he makes a perfect reflection in the tank surface.
I wanted a square, semi-realistic portrait of Sparky looking fiesty and happy. This was my first ever fish portrait. Here's Sparky:
Diesel the German Shepherd, Finished
I'm finished my portrait of Diesel, the german shepherd. Here's the finished product:
German Shepherd Painting in Progress
I'm working on my portrait of Diesel. Here's the most recent progress:
German Shepherd Portrait, Sketch
This is my preliminary sketch of Diesel, a German Shepherd:
I'm going to be painting a head and shoulders portrait of Diesel. I like the way he is looking away from the camera. He has a beautiful coat.
Read the rest of this post...Ollie's Poodle Portrait in Progress
I'm working on my portrait of Ollie and Sabrina. This is my most recent work on Ollie:
A Girl and her Beagle, Finished
I've finished my portrait of the cute little girl and her beagle. I decided on a dark blue shaded background to contrast with the pink of her dress. Here's the finished portrait:
A Girl and Her Beagle, In Progress
I've been working on my portrait of the little girl and her Beagle. I started with the Beagle's face. I've taped the original photo composite to a blank spot on the canvas for reference. Here's the underpainting:
I used blending medium to keep the underpainting from drying, and began mixing in the main colors.
I added the eyes and nose and put in more detail on the fur.
When I had the dog at an intermediate point, I began work on the girl by laying in the pinks in her skin.
I then covered the pink underpainting with a mixture of Titan Buff and some pinks and browns.
I added the colors around her eyes and mouth before painting them in:
Once I added the eyes, the portrait began to look more lifelike.
I then added her dress and hair, using pink hues throughout to tie it together:
Here's a closeup of their faces:
Next, I'm going to work on adding the rest of their bodies and the background.
Read the rest of this post...Ralphie's Finished Portrait
Ralphie loved to play in the Christmas wrappings. He looks like a wonderful dog. Read the rest of this post...
A Little Girl and her Beagle
I have been working on this portrait of a very cute little girl and her beagle. I started with this original photograph:
I made this rough sketch to map out the pose:
However, this pose didn't show the dog's face very well, so I used this additional photo of the dog to make a variation on my original sketch:
Ralphie the Dachshund, In Progress
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Ralphie the Dachshund
I'm happy to be back to painting after my summer of traveling. My new, larger studio in Mountain View, California is great. I've got a couple of portraits beginning and the first one is of Ralphie:
My Royal Portrait
I've been practicing my people portrait painting this last week. I usually paint portraits of dogs, and occasionally other animals, but I would like to paint more people.
Painting my own species is difficult but I'm practicing by painting a very recognizable face: Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II. She has been photographed throughout her entire life, and has posed for dozens of royal portraits. I like this portrait by Christian Furr at Buckingham Palace. The Queen chose Christian herself to paint this portrait when he was only 28.
I don't have the opportunity to paint her in person but I have been experimenting with painting Queen Elizabeth using old photos.
Here's the start of my small practice painting from a younger photo of the Queen:
I haven't decided whether to add her crown and jewelry. It would make the portrait more recognizable but the plainer, candid feeling is interesting too. I'll think about this as I work on improving the likeness and adding more of the background. It's fun being able to choose the color of her dress and chair.
Painting of a Girl, In Progress
I took detailed photos of the little girl's painting progress in the people portrait from yesterday's post.
Children and a Lab, Finished
It's been a long time since I last posted but I'm proud to show my new people portrait:
I used this original photo, and added the family dog using supplementary photos:
Read the rest of this post...Portrait of an Artist, Part 2
Today I worked on my portrait of Genie, working in her art studio. As an animal artist, I'm quite new to people portraits so I was a bit nervous about how I would paint skin, especially since I was using a black and white photo to paint a color portrait. Here's my progress so far:
I took lots of photos of the progress up to this point, have a look:
Portrait of an Artist, Part 1
And now for something completely different...
I'm starting on human portraits. I'll be painting a portrait of Genie, in her art studio, surrounded by some of her own paintings. One of the things I love about this photo is that although it was taken almost half a century ago, the woman in the photograph is using almost exactly the same model of easel that I'll be using to paint her portrait. It looks like she might be painting left-handed like I do as well.
This portrait will be particularly challenging for several reasons; it's a very large portrait (24"x36"), it's a subject I'm not familiar with, and finally, I'll be converting it from black and white to color, based on a description. Here's my initial line drawing, not including the paintings:
I'll be going through a lot of masking tape to make all those straight lines. Wish me luck!
Portrait of Dad, Age 8
Dad was a good sport for letting me put this picture of him on the internet. This is a pencil crayon portrait I drew of my father when I was about 8 years old. I've been reading up on human portrait techniques now that I am painting one, and I thought this picture would be useful to illustrate a common mistake when drawing faces.
