Wednesday, October 8, 2008

Cloud portrait

I have a few projects going on at the moment, but I've been wanting to paint this picture of Cloud for a promotional piece and couldn't help starting it tonight. It's small, 8 x 10, on Ampersand Gessoboard. I've got it sketched out here and am going to try using a matte medium to seal it instead of the workable fixative that I usually use. Reason - less smell and no sticky aerosol. Reason for sealing the drawing in the first place - I paint by building up light washes and glazes and the first wash would smear the graphite all over!

This is my reference photo, taken by hubby. It's a good example of how the camera can throw a dogs posture off - the way he's standing here doesn't really look possible, or at least the mind has a hard time making sense of it. However, it's a beautiful profile shot of his little face. So we paint what we like and lose the rest. In the sketch I raised his head just a little so he is looking up more. I'm changing his back to make it look like he's sitting down. Stay tuned...

12 comments:

Anonymous said...

yeah! its much better,

Anonymous said...

sure, why not!

Anonymous said...

well its nice to know that you have great hits here.

Anonymous said...

very cool.

Anonymous said...

im your favorite reader here!

Anonymous said...

what happened to the other one?

Anonymous said...

i think you add more info about it.

counselor kristal said...

that painting is going to rock!

are you and jason doing anything this weekend? maybe we could do teatime on saturday w/ you guys!

i dont know if brett is up for it, but i would like to. :)

Kathleen Coy said...

Well thanks, bulldozer people.

K, that would be great! It's the last weekend, so I hope Brett is up for it.

Nikki Martin said...

You have a great art subject in Cloud. If I was artsy at all, I'm sure there would be a lot of art of the dogs. I'll have to send you a picture of my attempt at painting Bella & Tucker. :-) It's entertaining.

Nikki Martin said...

Ok, I uploaded the pictures of my elementary paintings on Dogster they are the very last pictures on each of their profiles.

Kathleen Coy said...

Awww Nikki, they are so cute. I especially like the swirly sun in Bella's picture. VERY cool!