diary of a dog portrait

In spite of the publication of yesterday's article, I haven't actually done a process post in awhile, and since I knew before I started that this painting was going to be well outside my comfort zone, I thought it might be an interesting one to document, warts and all. If you'd like to see the painting morph like magic before your very eyes check out this slide show.



After sketching out the basic outline on my newly-stretched 16" x 20" canvas I loosely blocked in the main shapes with bright colours. I never start with a blank canvas as the underpainting is an important part of the final image in my work. This painting was no exception, even though I knew that I was painting an uncharacteristically traditional painting in both composition and execution and that, in the end, the effect of the underpainting would be minimal.

I began with the darker colours of Zappa's coat, then added a bit of the grass to 'ground' the painting, so to speak. Also, I knew that the grass, the one tedious part of the painting to execute, would come last, and I wanted to feel as if I'd made a bit of headway with it.

I continued painting the dog with the midtones and finished with the white areas. But I ran into serious trouble with his face. Even though it started out correctly proportioned, I forgot to step away from the painting and every 'adjustment' I made took it farther away from my beloved pooch. I was extremely frustrated, especially as painting his face was quite an emotional experience. Then Dinahmow, who never pulls punches and was keeping up with my progress, said just the right thing: "I didn't know he was crossed with a Bull Terrier".

I'd love to say that that was that and I corrected it immediately but no, I had to spend a long time on his face to finally satisfy myself that this was Zappa, if only a pale imitation. And I was relieved that I'd gotten the most difficult part of the painting out of the way relatively early in the process. Hard experience and many wasted tubes of paint and canvas later, I have learned to anticipate problem areas and tackle them first.

As for the background, I started to work the horizon in then realized that I'd misplaced the planter box from the original photo and it was now growing out of his head. See, there's no such thing as a straight line from point A to point B!

It's my painting and I'll cheat if I want to, cheat if I want to, cheat if I want to; You would cheat, too, if it happened to you.

And so I did. While removing the offending element I also lowered the horizon line so it fit the perspective better and wasn't floating above his head. And then came the endless grass. I have no idea where Seurat and his partners-in-pointillism got all their patience.

And there you have it. I thought briefly about attempting to incorporate my more distinctive stylistic elements into this painting, then realized that a straight-ahead portrait, done with as much faithfulness as possible, was really the only choice for such personal subject matter. For me anyway. Besides, animal portraits are way outside my experience and I knew I'd screw it up royally if I tried anything too ambitious. I had to get this right. And you know, I really did find the whole process therapeutic, in spite of the fact that I worked like a woman possessed for more than three days (or maybe because of). Now I think I'll sleep for a week.