Horsing around

Fitzy knew when we agreed the two paintings that I'm currently doing for him that if I had other deadline commissions, that they would take precedence over the timing for his artwork, and was happy with that possibility. The only reason I said it was because I knew the artwork that I'm doing for Fitzy is going to take a while to paint, as I'm having to do two working paintings before I start the two canvas's proper. And, sure enough, soon after I started work, I was asked to paint a picture for a birthday in May, so I've got a deadline, just as I predicted! LOL

The painting in question is totally different to the ones I'm doing for Fitzy, as it's Elliot. And Elliot is a bit different to Fitzy. He has lovely long black hair, he has brown eyes, a bit of a beard, long nose, big ears, and four feet. Well, hooves really. Because Elliot is............ a horse. I met him a couple of weeks ago when I was asked to go and see him and take photos for the portrait I'm doing of him. I duly went along at the arranged time, feeding time infact, as that was deemed the part of the day when he was more likely to be amenable to a stranger taking photos of his best side. Of course, he was curious to start with, but soon got bored of the tiresome task of having to lift his head AND look intelligent AND look the right way AND have his ears forward AND not be eating whilst he was doing it. So he kept wandering off. The back end of a horse is not that photogenic, so I had to get to the right end, rather than the wrong end, and try to photograph him in the the right light, with all the aforementioned posing involved too!

I've NEVER taken so many photos of one thing before. Photo. Photo. Photo. Photo...........Photo. Photo...............

After taking endless shots I thought at least a few of them would be right, but on getting home I found that only one fit the criteria of him looking around, with ears forward, looking curious and friendly, not eating, not side on, and not full on. Phew. Do all super models have this problem, I wonder? LOL

Well, no matter, one photo was all I needed. And that is what I've been working from, and this is the painting I've done, in acrylic on line and wash board. Acrylics are the best thing to use for animal portraits, as you can build up the light hairs on dark background, dark hairs on light background that is the animal. And that is how you get the character of the animal too. I think I've got a good likeness to Elliot, I just hope the person who is receiving this as a birthday present thinks so too.................... She's not seen it yet. The bit I like best, is the bit of flicked paint around his mane, that makes him look like he's moving a bit, and the white blow of air below his mouth, that makes him look alive. Well, the intelligent eyes, the right shape for a horses head, the colours, the nuances of tone of his hair all help too of course!!!!! LOL

Clear heads

Due to a busy week and other things getting in the way I've not been able to do much work on the second dog commission this week and the Christmas deadline's looming..... And none of this helped by the fact that I've had a stinking cold this week and felt like shit!! But, part of the joy of being self employed is that jobs have to be done for deadlines no matter how you feel! So..... today I thought I ought to at least try and get some of the painting done even if it was something easy like a bit of the background, (cos in theory I shouldn't be able to cock that up, even if I did feel way under par). So, a cup of tea in one hand, and a paintbrush in the other, I stood and looked at the painting and realised virtually straight away that I'd been going wrong in the first place by thinking that I should use gouache paint! I'd chosen it as I needed to paint virtually every hair on a hairy dog, I needed to use a medium that could paint light on dark (unlike watercolours) so had opted for gouache to do the job, but didn't like the effect I had achieved so far (I couldn't have been THAT ill then, if I could tell that straight away!), so my only option then was to use acylics as a fast drying watercolour medium that would show the gouache under-painting clearly but give a better overall result. I quickly did a glazing wash over with the acrylics and instantly felt a whole load better about the painting, to the point that within a few hours it was completely finished! Wow! I certainly hadn't expected to finish it today. And that surprised me too. Because I started painting feeling bunged up, and full of cold and not thinking straight, and ended up still bunged up and full of cold, but with a totally clear head, aware of my creativity working properly and finishing the picture and even being very proud of the end result. So, another Wow!!! Perhaps my well-being just needs to be creative to get me feeling better!!



So... here it is - the finished painting. I'm not sure what sort of dog it is - a bit of everything I think. But I'm really pleased with the painting, and hopefully the recipient will like it too ...... I think I've captured the dog nicely especially the large soulful eyes....