Dachshund Portrait in Progress
29 June, 2010 Filed in: Dogs
I'm back from traveling and I've been working on my portrait of Bear the dachshund from Dogster. Here are Bear's original photos:
I experimented with several poses, and decided on a square headshot portrait. I made a quick sketch of Bear, then transferred my sketch to the canvas and began filling in the underlying layers of her coat.
I've been filming video of the process, which I will post as a speed painting when the painting is done. I've posted some stills from the video below.
I almost always use a purple or pink underpainting to bring out the depth in dogs' coats. For Bear, I used a mixture of Dioxazine Purple and Violet Oxide, which is a brownish purple. I marked in the areas of high contrast around her face, and begin painting in her eyes and nose.
After mapping in the overall proportions of her face, I made a brown mixture for her fur. This mixture will almost completely cover the purple, leaving only hints of it behind, but the purple layer also serves as guide for me so I don't distort the proportions.
With the brown and light areas mapped in, I started on the detail. This early stage of the painting should be done very quickly, with a big brush, so you don't get carried away with details. The idea is to map out the whole figure first, then start on detail.
Now that the overall shape of Bear's face is blocked in, I will switch to a smaller brush and begin work on her eyes.
I experimented with several poses, and decided on a square headshot portrait. I made a quick sketch of Bear, then transferred my sketch to the canvas and began filling in the underlying layers of her coat.
I've been filming video of the process, which I will post as a speed painting when the painting is done. I've posted some stills from the video below.
I almost always use a purple or pink underpainting to bring out the depth in dogs' coats. For Bear, I used a mixture of Dioxazine Purple and Violet Oxide, which is a brownish purple. I marked in the areas of high contrast around her face, and begin painting in her eyes and nose.
After mapping in the overall proportions of her face, I made a brown mixture for her fur. This mixture will almost completely cover the purple, leaving only hints of it behind, but the purple layer also serves as guide for me so I don't distort the proportions.
With the brown and light areas mapped in, I started on the detail. This early stage of the painting should be done very quickly, with a big brush, so you don't get carried away with details. The idea is to map out the whole figure first, then start on detail.
Now that the overall shape of Bear's face is blocked in, I will switch to a smaller brush and begin work on her eyes.
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