Portrait of 3 Labradors in Pastel

The second layer of pastels has now been applied and I've included my workings on the puppy to illustrate the addition of reddy browns and purples onto the coat as well as bluey greys and blacks before I smudge it all together. I fix the drawing in between layers using an aerosol fixative. This enables me to add more pigment without scratching so much of it off again. I create mountains of dust when doing pastel work and I have to make sure I don't transfer any of it to different parts of the drawing. All three dogs get the same treatment, Ted has peach, orange and violet tones added to his coat. The top three pictures just illustrate how I work from left to right to further reduce chances of accidental smudging. The picture is fixed again ready for the top layers of detail.

Portrait of 3 Labradors in Pastel

This is the story of a handsome golden labrador, Ted, and his beautiful wife, Pepper, who had a cheeky son called Paddy. They all lived happily together but their owner could never get them to pose with each other in one single photograph. So she came to me to place them all together in a family portrait. Ah the merits of artistic licence! So I've sketched out their faces on pearl grey Fabriano Tiziano pastel paper, size 70 x 50cm, and lay down the base colours. I have smudged the pastels into the paper, making sure there is no loose dust left over for me to accidently press elsewhere into the paper. Next I will build up the colours and details in their coats and I haven't yet decided whether to put a simple hint of a background in to draw them together ('scuse the pun!).

Lucan - Black Labrador Painting

 

Lucan, the handsome black labrador, is now complete. I have added texture within the paint to bring his fur to life but this is regrettably lost on these photographs. So, from the last blog entry I have painted the detail of the fur by building up layers of black, payne's grey and white with a synthetic brush that separates its bristles when I have the right mix of paint with water. This gives me the ability to build up layers of hair. Next I concentrated on the background sky and grass adding in more shades of greens, yellows, blues, browns and even peach tones to create more texture without detracting too much from the detail of the dog. After that I spent a few final hours comparing the finer details of the photo with the painting, making sure the shine on the fur gave him the correct face shape, tweaking the colour of his eyes and getting the right texture on his shiny black nose.

Lucan - Black Labrador Painting

A black Labrador named Lucan is the subject of my next commission. This regal looking dog is sadly now deceased but a collection of old photos helped me to sketch out some alternative ideas. In the end though I decided base the painting heavily on the most recent and clearest photo shown here. I am painting acrylic onto box canvas size 16 x 20" and am placing him in a grassy meadow. As I've mentioned before on my blog, black animals are the hardest for any photographer or artist to get right and not look dull so I've started off laying a base coat of ultramarine blue and browns so that when I add black and white later it won't look quite so 2-dimensional. I'm also thinking I might need to add more texture to the paint, which will also bring it to life a bit more.