Dog Paintings

I forgot that I had a progress photo of Precious on my computer.  Precious’s portrait is being created with a strong contemporary feel to go with her funky and fashionable patent pink colour:)  I have to admit the shine of the patent pink collar is the hardest part to get right.  LOL its not something that I usually paint, but I am sure it will work out in the end.

Sorry about the flash glare on this one, oil paintings are proving as difficult to photograph as graphite!

There is still a fair bit of work to do to get Precious and her patent collar looking perfect, but I won’t be able to work on this until I get a couple of commissions wrapped up.

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I have a number of pieces on the go at the moments, this pet portrait of a beautiful German Shepherd dog isn’t finished yet, but I thought I would share the progress photos to give an idea of how this portrait has developed so far. I am working to avoid just duplicating the photograph, I do want the piece to retain a definite hand drawing look, and I am experimenting a bit with ‘painting’ the charcoal rather than drawing as such.

Charcoal on drafting film approx 9″x12″ image size.

Let me know what you think so far!

I am looking for more German Shepherd models for my “Best of Breed Series”, so if you are owned by one or more of these beautiful creatures, there is some additional information   here.

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I’m glad to report that the new carpet has been laid and our house is slowly returning to normal – I today I can finally step back inside my studio!

After painting for the last few pieces, I wanted to get my hand back into drawing mode so I started this Rhodesian Ridgeback as a quick experiment see how graphite works on drafting film.  Drafting film is my favourite support for colour pencil work, but I have never tried it for graphite until now (very few artists use it, although I have found one artist who has been using it as a support for thirty odd years).

Photographing it proved very difficult, but I have finally managed to get a semi-reasonable digital image of this one by scanning it, it is still a work in progress, so not yet completed. Film is a really nice surface to work on, and it is more like painting in graphite and charcoal than drawing that is both good and bad, good because it allows very soft transitions of tone, bad because it is easy to lift off and smudge.

I normally only use charcoal for getting my darkest darks in my graphite work, but I found myself leaning more and more towards the charcoal with this one, and whats more, really enjoying ‘painting’ with it using a variety of tools such as chamois, tissue, cotton buds (q-tips), a watercolour brush and a make-up sponge.

Probably the best thing about drafting film though, is the ability to put a different colour paper behind the drawing.  I used a cream parchment paper, and although it dosn’t show properly in the scan (think marbled/mottled cream rather than solid), the effect it gives in real life is really interesting, and something I am looking forward to experimenting a bit more with.

The reference photo was one of my own, and the drawing is approximately A4 in size and when it is finished I will probably offer prints of it at RedBubble.

The first image shows the drawing with the cream backing:

The second image shows the drawing with a white background:

I’d love to know your opinion on my experiment, and if you use drafting film for graphite and charcoal work, or would like a charcoal pet portrait of your own Rhodesian Ridgeback, I’d love to chat;)

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Thanks for visiting Dogpaintings.com.au, my dog art painting series blog!

This blog is currently under construction (thanks to my wonderful hubby), so please excuse the dust while I move in and get settled.  I hope to have everything ready and other projects and commitments finalized in order to start the Dog Paintings project in September/October, but if you are keen, please feel free to submit your favourite dog photos anytime – you can read about the Dog Paintings project in the menu at the left of your screen.

Eventually a Gallery of my Dog Art will be set up for easy viewing (featuring my dog artwork both commissioned work and the dog paintings project gallery), but in the meantime, you can view examples of my dog breed art, pet portrait commissions, wildlife art and photography on my online portfolio at www.michellewrighton.com

Michelle

About the Dog Paintings Project

My Art Portfolio