The Layers of Lisel

I am gradually adding layers of color to Lisel's coat to get depth before I add any white hairs.

Meet Lisel!

I have been commissioned to paint a 24"x30" portrait of Lisel, she is a Deutsch-Drahthaar, a German hunting dog!

I started with a base of raw sienna mixed with white, I have gone over it several times with mixtures of Burnt Umber, Naphthol Red Light and Cadmium Yellow Medium Hue (the background, that is!). Lisel has had Burnt Umber painted on her darker shadows, a mixture of Raw Sienna and White on some of her lighter areas and I then covered a majority of her in a mixture of Burnt Umber and Naphthol Red Light. She'll have several layers of color to give her depth before I work on adding in the white "guard hairs". The blades of grass on the lower half of the painting will be added "here and there" throughout the process!! (Depends on my mood, I guess!)

Finished Sunny Dressage Horse

OK, I'm finished, I have added a few stray hairs to the top of the forelock and now I just give it a couple of days to dry fully before I varnish it!

Sunny Dressage Horse

I am still "battling" with the sunroom dressage horse! I disliked the look of his mane and forelock running together (couldn't put my finger on it, it just wasn't right). So I thought I would just paint over that section and start again...HA! Yellow doesn't cover black very well, even if you seal it with gesso! Now I am thinking I may just throw some "stray hairs" in there and see how it will look.

If you look close at the photo, between his ears, you can see where I have attempted a cover up!

Longhorn progress

I have been slacking a bit lately! I have been painting "bits and pieces", but not photographing the steps as often.

The longhorn is progressing nicely. Some days I think to myself "this is easier because it is not someone's special animal, I don't have to get the expression exactly"!! Then a day later I'm thinking "this is not as easy, I don't have a longhorn in my pasture to look at if I am not sure of something that is not real clear in the photograph"!

Longhorn

Well I have the longhorn drawn on the canvas, but have been inspired to work on the "sunroom dressage horse"!!

Another painting

It seems as if I have been slacking lately!! But now have inspiration for 2 new paintings. The first is a dressage horse that I photographed this past winter, I am putting it on a 24" x 30" box canvas, he is chestnut in color and I have decided to paint him on yellow. I may have to call it my "sunroom painting"!!

The second painting I haven't yet photographed, so I will add it tomorrow. It is a Longhorn! I have been back and forth in my mind on background color, green or red? My first instinct was to put it on an red/orange background and I am thinking I will stick with that.