Friday, February 1, 2019

The Girls - a Double Doggie Portrait


"The Girls" (pastel, 10x8 inches, from client photo) sold

Another favorite commission form the Holiday Season, these two little Schnauzers were a sweet combo! The client liked the reference photo pose just how it was, with the clingy Maya closer and braveheart Sasha more independent.

The gift recipient loves it and sent me a pic today:





And I got some good process shots of this one too:
 The first under-painting layers are my gold-colored primer (which is the Golden brand Quinacridone Nickel Azo Gold fluid acrylic color mixed into Golden (brand) Fine Pumice Gel at about a 1/4 color/gel ratio.) and the Art Spectrum (brand) Pastel Primer in the terra cotta color. The terra cotta acts an my mid-tone.
On this painting I also used a higher-color mixture of some ultramarine blue (Golden brand) fluid acrylic color with the pumice gel to catch the darker values. I love how this blue mixture (being semi-transparent) remains bright over the gold color, but becomes quite deep over the terra cotta!

 My final under-painting step was to go back and tweak the light and mid-values with more gold and terra cotta where needed.

 Then, the pastel, starting on the darkest, and the lightest...
 ...then everything in between. When the under-painting has the image and values accurately, the pastel part is so much easier!




Thanks for watching! To commission a pet portrait for yourself or a loved one, visit my website ritakirkman.com. Feel free to share!

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