Two Greyhound Pastel Portraits

I have just finished these two portraits of Bryn and Gigi - two greyhounds commissioned together as A3 pastel paintings. I worked on them simultaneously in order to get the balance of colour correct and use similar pastel colours in their coats to make them work together, even though they are very looking dogs. Having decided on the best photo of each of them I drew them lightly onto beige pastel paper, to ensure I had the features in the right place. Then I laid down a base of white in the lightest areas followed by a warm cream and smudged them together. Next I blocked in areas where I could see oranges and browns and carefully worked them together. Having laid a base I then established my darkest areas with a black and dark brown pastel. At this point I needed to focus on the eyes so I swapped my pastel block for a pastel pencil to create finer detail. Bryn's markings were a challenge as they needed to be mapped on in the right places without losing definition. I used a cream pastel pencil to blend the edges of the markings to keep them sharp and built up the tonal values with browns, ochres, oranges and greys. A touch of blue was also added in places, especially the nose, to complement the orange tones and make them zing! More warm oranges and peachy tones were added to Gigi's coat and after balancing the detail on both dogs I think they are complete and ready to be framed as a pair.

Another black Labrador but in pastel

This is Bramble, owned by a couple who share exactly the same birthday with each other (how cool is that?!) and the portrait is a surprise birthday present. The size is 12 x 16" on cream Canson Pastel Paper and started, as always, with a light drawing to get the main features mapped. Then I chose a reddish brown to paint into the shadows and white for the highlights. I added grey for the midtones and blended them together to lose the texture of the paper. It's useful to put all three primary colours into a black coat to stop the darks from looking dead so I reached for a blue pastel and picked out the areas that I could see had a blue hint. After blending them all together I used three different types of black pastels to lay into the shadow areas, blending and checking tonal values and shapes as I go. Not a lot seems to change in these final stages but depth is created by building more layers of colour: cream, blue, yellow ochre, purple, white and brown. The final touches of her name and my signature completes the commission!

Bella - a black lab in oil paint

This is Bella, a beautiful black lab in a beautiful pose but the photo is not very sharp so the owner sent me a few others to work with that have more detail. Black animals always offer the greatest challenge as it's tricky getting depth in a painting when the highlights are a lighter shade of black! Anyway, I started by toning my 9 x 12" size canvas board with a mixture of cadmium yellow and yellow ochre. Then I sketched Bella over the top, marking in where her features are as well as I could. Then I scumbled the background with a mixture of ultramarine blue, sap green and raw umber into titanium white. I let this layer dry before mixing burnt sienna with ultramarine in varying mixes for the first undercoat. This layer establishes the highlights, shadows and direction of fur growth. Next I added a little white to pick out the high spots as well as layering in more tones of mixed black. With another layer added, this time with more blue in the mix, I concentrated on painting burnt sienna into the eyes and creating the shape and highlights. Here I got a little unstuck as the photo was so vague and I ended up messing around with the levels in Photoshop and painting from my laptop screen. I changed my paintbrushes to get finer brushstrokes as I added more blue, white, umber and sienna on different layers and at last the dog is taking form and looking less flat! I added more colour to the background and painted these onto the dog in order to soften the edges and add the right colours that would be reflected on the coat. Finally, black and brown shades are painted back over and lifted out of the highlighted areas. Bella is now finished!

Repeat Custom

It's always a treat when a customer returns to commission another portrait and this one is to go alongside 'Magic' which I completed in 2012. Just one photo was sent, which was really good quality so I chose a piece of sand coloured 12 x 16" Murano pastel paper and got started. After drawing the outline I mapped in the lightest areas with a white pastel and chose a yellow ochre for the shadow areas. I smudged the colours together before selecting a dark brown for the shadows on the legs and smudged those together using a cream pastel pencil, before getting to work on the head using an assortment of brown sharpened pastel pencils. This was quite fiddly to get right but once I was happy I took the same reddy browns, greys and ochres and added them to the rest of the coat. At stages the dog looked almost shaggy so cream and white pencils were used to push the pastel and smooth it out. Finally, I grabbed a handful of greens, browns and yellows for the grass and tried to create a similar patch as I did for the previous portrait. I think they'll look great together!

Feline Friends

Two feline friends are the subject of my latest commission. The portrait is an A4 pastel on cream Daler Rowney Ingres Pastel Paper, the shade of which was tricky to choose as I wanted both cats to stand out equally. I considered a mid beige so the ginger cat would be lighter and the blacker cat darker but decided their eyes might disappear and it might not work, so light cream was selected. I opted for two photos where the cats could be drawn as if they might be side by side and sketched their basic shapes before mapping out the ginger markings on both cats. This initial application of pastel sits on the paper surface and looks very grainy so I smoothed it using a cream pastel pencil, which you can see in the second of the series. This process is repeated using a range of colours from bright reds, oranges and yellows on the ginger cat, to brown, grey, black and even green on the coat as well as the eyes. Once I was happy with the balance of tones I flicked in some white whiskers and moved onto blocking in the really dark areas on the other cat. I used cream, dark brown and grey pastel underneath the shiny areas of the coat and flicked in all sorts of colours and shades to keep the markings vibrant. I hope I've captured them!

Macon and Rully - Great Pyrenees

These two lovable dogs are now finished. As this is for a special birthday present I have been working on this solely to get it completed for the celebration party and the frame has been made at the same time. From the last blog entry many layers and glazes of paint have been applied, starting with the greens of the woods and foliage in the background. When the level of detail was becoming too much I moved my attention to Macon (on the right) and spent time getting the tonal layers in his fur more accurate using warm umbers mixed with varying levels of ultramarine blue and then when dry, layering titanium white over the top to create depths of fluffiness. This 'push and pull' of dark to light and back again is eventually what gives the portrait depth but it goes through some scarily dark changes to get there, which I've not shown. Next, ultramarine and crimson were mixed in varying levels with white to create the bluebells which I randomly painted in with large brushstrokes and added more detail to the trees. At this point I decided the greens were too bright so painted a dark glaze across the whole of the picture to knock the intensity back and lifted out the dogs before it dried. Unfortunately I dropped my camera last week when I leapt out of my car so the second last picture was taken with a tablet and is a bit grainy. Never-the-less, you should still be able to see how both dogs are looking more 3-D and the bluebells are more detailed. Finally, details were sharpened and their fur softened and brightened. As this is in oils the portrait has a lovely rich lustre and I can't wait to see it in its decorative frame.