This latest commission an oil painting of Macon and Rully, two fun-loving Great Pyrenees dogs who like snapping at builders' bottoms! I visited them in their new home to take their photographs and after an albumful of snaps, we settled on the two photos which best describe each individual personality. The owners wanted them facing each other and set in local bluebell woods so I sourced some pictures from a photographer friend of mine as well as the internet and mocked up some photo-composites. After playing around with the composition I ordered a fine linen canvas size 24 x 30" from Harris Moore who make them to measure. I primed the canvas and painted a sunshine yellow in a mixture of cadmium, lemon and ochre. When that had dried I drew the dogs in place. Using titanium white and burnt umber I started to block in the main areas of tone, mixing crimson and ultramarine with the umber to get some rich darks. Next I concentrated my paintbrush on getting some texture into the background and painted in some trees. With a finer brush I started work on their faces and continued putting more shadows into the background to make the white of their coats leap out. The oils I use dry relatively quickly so I can come back the next day and apply more layers without too much merging of colour. The next stage of the process is what my artist friend, Robert, always calls the 'A' level phase' - when the initial painting, with it's naive brush strokes and energy, gets lost as layers of detail are applied. It's easy to think you are wrecking the portrait at this stage but it is a necessary part of the process in order that depth and accuracy are achieved. Right, better get back to painting...!
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