The Painted Diary

If you're lucky, your pet may stay still long enough to capture a drawing, but painting... generally they are gone hunting before your palette is even ready. So "capturing" generally means photographing and even that can have stiff and iffy results... however, read on!

When we must use a photo as a painting reference, there are many things that we can do to generate a lively likeness rather than copy the photo verbatim. Use the photo as a guide, but know that you can enhance texture, colour and definition within the context of “likeness” to achieve a lively, warm likeness of your furry friend. Also, much can be derived regarding personality, by having a conversation with the pet's friends.

When I met sweet Matilda, she was doing some desktop management in the office, and thus, my snapshot of her was dark and soft. Having met Matilda, I knew her beautiful colours, textures and the feeling she gave me, so I was undaunted when I wanted to paint her. Here is how I approach and proceed in this "imperfect" photo reference scenario;

First, I always sketch my subject several times to both warm up and to determine a good composition. I then sketch with conte, right onto the painting surface which, in this case, was an Italian Pintura panel (a fave). Note that charcoal and pencil tend to smudge and potentially colour the paint, to avoid that you can spray fixative before painting. Conte was the right colour for her fur so smudging was not an issue. 

I then solidify the sketch using either umber or transparent red oxide to under-paint with light loose brush strokes. For brushes, I prefer using "brights" - square flats - as I can get pretty much everything I need from them;  sharp thin lines to broad textured strokes. Generally roughing in using #2 or #4 "Silver" ruby satin #2502 (thank you Richard Schmid forever). To encourage loose and lively strokes, I use colourful but relevant hues, broad strokes, applied loosely, and in the direction the fur is falling. I stroke in some vivid warms and cool colours to help define the form.

Warmed up now, I paint with shorter more controlled strokes in the eyes, then progressively looser, broader strokes as I move away from the focal point while defining and representing fur. The looseness used in defining the fur is not only fun to do, it helps to generate a sense of movement and weight and appears to "fall" as gravity would naturally affect it. Plus the somewhat laissez-faire strokes bring to the composition such verve due to the relaxed energetic flowing result.

In this composition, I created a simplified background from what was in the photo; I brightened the ambient light, enhanced the colour and let those beauty strokes show! I used a colour complimentary to Matilda's fur as it brightens the subject and lightens the impression generating a happy mood.

Perfect? No never! Beautiful, a good likeness, colourful and  fun to look at? Yes!