Pet Portraits in Oil

Here is Suki's next layer;
Her portrait is almost finished now, just need to neaten up the grass.

Here is the next stage of Murphy & Lily's portrait - I've been working on the background, adding hints of blue and light to the cloudy sky, blending the foliage behind, and painting in more grassblades (I keep starting on Murphy's side and work my way over to Lily but never actually finish in one sitting, which is why the left side grass is a lot more 'done' than the right hand grass.)

I've really loved painting these two dogs so far, because they are both so nice and I see Murphy all the time on the canal. His owner, Roy, asked for the background to be a canal scene, which I was worried about at first because its often best to keep portrait backgrounds as neutral as possible so attention is not drawn away from the dog, but I think the canal scene looks quite nice, and the colours arn't too strong either.

Next, I'm going to add fine details to Murphy's face, and Lily needs another layer of block colours.

Here is Jack & Gingy's tiny little portrait (10x10") on its third stage. I've started to add an autumn-coloured background with a few small details like leaves and grass. I want the background to feel very light, airy and look dappled with sunlight so I'll be working on that over the next three days to see how it turns out.

Gingy's bright blue eyes are beautiful, but both cats need a new layer because I've blended the background over their ears and their outlines.

I was hoping to get this painting finished before my mom's birthday but it will have to be a little late present for her instead because I won't have enough time. Hope she likes it. : )

Here is the first stage of Murphy & Lily's background;

Frank's second stage - I outlined his eyes and nose with Lamp Black mixed with Raw Sienna to soften it, and I also shaded in the darkest areas with the same paint mix but topped it with Permanent Mauve. I painted the whole portrait with a thin mix of Venetian Red, Naples Yellow and Raw Sienna. The reddish tones will come out more as more layers are added.

Lastly, the background was blended with the edges of Frank's fur outline so that he will stand out more for the later stages (his nose & eyes will become the focus point).

Here are Suki's first three stages;

Frank's first stage has been outlined with a mixture of Transparent Gold Ochre to match his colouring, and a little Brown Pink for more strength. Frank has very short fur so there's a lot of definition in his face that is extremely important in making the portrait accurate.

Here is the next stage of Hollie's portrait, where I've begun to dapple the fur on her chest to make it appear soft and fluffy, and I've started to add dabs of that warm orangey colour she has across her face. I won't be adding the fur detail until all of her colours have been painted down because she has many different tones of brown, orange, white, grey etc, and even a little blue in the black areas. I think I should change the background to a black and grey, sligthly stormy sky and landscape, to make her stand out with all her warm colours. This warm background seems too strong at the moment.

We are now at the boatyard where the hull will be inspected - it only took about three hours to get here on Saturday because the weather was really bad and no one else was on the canal really. It rained most of the time and I got soaked because I was driving the boat when it started tipping it down.

In Wheaton Aston a nice couple helped me do the lock because even though I've done locks loads of times before I just couldn't remember how to work them - and we also couldn't find our lock key so we had to buy a new one. Other than that everything went alright. Here is a pic of how gloomy it was on Sat;

The whole ride was pretty much like in the pics - a lot of field scenery, and a few small villages and canal-side pubs along the way too. On Sunday we did something I really regret, and that's walk the whole way back along the canal to get the car from the mooring so that Mike can get to work - that's about 11 miles of walking, and on the last mile I was literally dragging myself along the towpath. We won't be doing that again when it's time to take the boat back to the mooring, we'll be getting a lift. I hope I can write another blog entry soon saying the boat's hull is fine ...

At last, I've started Hollie's portrait - it's quite big; 24x18" and I haven't decided what to do with the background yet so I've just filled it in so that at least some neutral layers have been painted on. Here are the first three stages;