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.

Man and Boy Commission

This latest painting is a commission for a wedding present from a lady to her new husband and son. It's nearly finished, I just need to come back to it tomorrow and correct any glaring errors in skin tone. After a while you just can't see it - a fresh pair of eyes is what's needed! These are the photos I worked from and the portrait was meant to be quite loose but I felt the subjects needed detail to fully appreciate the interaction between them. As usual I've included my step-by-step build up of the painting which is 16" x 20" on box canvas (so I've painted the sides as well).

Sailing Away Together

This commission came through the Ford Framing Shop in Arundel and was quite a challenge. The photograph supplied to work from was old and faded and lacked detail. The final piece is 19.75" x 10.75" so I had to paint the detail the best I could. I started by blocking out the main colours and shadows. The sea on the photograph was just two tone so I was able to paint in a more realistic choppy sea using other reference material, trail and error! I kept adding detail then knocking it back, I didn't want it to look abstract and painterly but it was so tricky to know if I was painting the subjects faces correctly. In the end I checked with the client who was happy with the likeness before adding sea spray with various sized brushes including a washing up brush. I've now got very white fingernails!

Two happy completed spaniels

Max and Jake are finished after a few more hours  of tweaking the colours and textures. My paint palette is disintegrating with so much mixing but I think I've finally got them and the grass is really textured so I'm pleased with it! Just need to choose a frame to set them off beautifully now.