5 dog commission DONE!

Smokey:

Sparky:

Lightning:

Storm:

Thunder:

The Newton Boys!

I am currently working on a large portrait of 5 dogs. I had the great pleasure of meeting 4 of them when I took a trip up to New Hampshire. They are wonderful, friendly and lively dogs. And meeting them really makes my job in painting them easier. Their owner worked with me to get the layout just right. She claims to not really have an artistic eye, but I think she has more than she realizes! The final painting will be 16"x20". Here is the layout we decided on:

I started on Smokey(who is the dog in the upper left-hand corner). I am almost done with him, but will save the final detail until the end so that there is a continuity to the entire painting. Here he is:

I started working on Sparky last night. He is the dog in the upper right-hand corner.

Check back for more updates!

Solo: Details eyes, nose and collar

So I got a good amount of work put in this morning while the wee one slept. She was ever so kind today(so far). Here is the updated portrait so far:Here's a closeup of the eyes:A closeup of the nose(you can see I removed the masking fluid to reveal the preserved white paper):

And a closeup of the collar(I'm really loving painting the details on this collar):

So a lot of work accomplished this morning, but some more to go. I hope to finish this one either today or tomorrow.

Solo: We have a background

I was out running through the woods with my weim(scout) this morning and thinking what the best background would be for this painting. As I was moving along I thought that a nice deep blue would go well. It would make Solo stand out. And it would accent the brown of his collar and the gold nameplate. So here it is:

Solo: Day 3

The train woke me up early this morning. Now that summer is almost here I'm trying to get used to having the windows open. Not an easy task with the commuter train at the back of our property and chorus of birds who seem to think that 330am is when I need a wake up call. So I got about 20 minutes of painting in before Meri decided she needed to get up. I worked in a bit more detail overall.
And started in on the nose. Weims are somewhat tricky as thier noses are brown and gray at the same time(oh and perhaps a bit of reddish). The colors I use are burnt umber+prussian blue+a dab of cadmium red. Then I drop in the gray mixture I use for thier coat(ultramarine blue+raw umber). The light blue shiny stuff on the nose is the masking fluid. It will be removed shortly with an eraser.
Check back later for another update(hopefully).

Solo: The Weimaraner-first drops of color

Ok, so I got a good solid 30 minutes of painting before Meri started to randomly cry in her crib. So I quickly and as quietly as I could took 1 photo of the painting in progress and decided to leave my office before I pushed my luck any further. Meri quieted down, so there's no way I'm getting back in my office, sitting on my creaky chair and chancing waking her up even more. Oh to have an office that does not share a wall with her nursery....



Oh, and the painting measure 9"x12" and is on 300 lbs. hotpressed arches watercolor paper. Most of the paints are Winsor & Newton artists grade paints. If you look closely enough you can see that I've placed some dots of masking fluid on the dogs nose to preserve the white of the paper. I'll take that off later in the painting! I hope to be back with an update later tonight!

Solo: The weimaraner

I decided to start a blog to post my work in progresses. I met this beautiful boy, Solo, at the Weimaraner nationals in Rhode Island last week. His owner commissioned me to paint him. I'm very excited to get a start on him. But first is to sketch him out(which I did yesterday and today). Now the real fun can begin! Hopefully my daughter will nap well enough this afternoon so I can start!