Custom Dog Portrait : MacTavish
12? x 16? Oil Painting
Traditional 3/4″ Deep Wrapped Canvas
© 2006 Leanne Wildermuth
All Rights Reserved

see face detail on this painting…

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Caution: Wet PaintI just completed this lovely Scottie portrait, several more layers of fur have been added to really make his coat shine and give him dimension. I deepened the shadows just beneath him, and signed the painting – which means I feel finished – however there may be slight changes by my client before the painting is officially complete. I’ll scan him when he’s finished and you’ll see more accurate color, the background tones are hard to capture with a digital.

View the entire progress of this dog painting here.

I wanted to share one more work in progress shot before I finish up this portrait – the darkest darks. I’ll be doing a lot of lightening now, layering up to the lightest lights.

There’s a big difference in this one from the last work in progress, you can view them all here. He’s really coming to life – the next image you see on this dog painting will be the final photo and then the full scan & detail shots when it’s dry.

 

I’ll be finishing up MacTavish today and tomorrow. This is the current progress shot, his eyes and nose are complete and I’ve started deepening the fur around his eyes.

You can view all of his portrait painting progress here.

 

Finally, the underpainting is complete. You can see this painting as it has progressed here.

It’s made an amazing transformation, but these are still just the basic colors. (fyi: the license plate has been blurred for display on the web.) I’ll paint the car all over again with highlights, lowlights and make further enhancements to the midtones. You’ll be able to hear the engine purr when I’m through with her.

Tidbit: These are the brushes I’m painting with, on a 16×20 canvas – that should explain why this is such a long process.

Here’s a sketch of another custom portrait painting I’ll be working on soon, in oils. It’s 4×6, a nice little size (the same as Ashley, actually), and the pose is just perfect – I just love this composition.

I’m still working on the other two large paintings (the GTO and that cute little Scottish Terrier), and will post more progress shots on them soon! Those should both be done by the end of this week.

For those of you who guessed red, of course she’s red! Sweet rides are always red, aren’t they? I must just be one of those. Except my dream car is a ’66 Mustang – midnight blue with cream pony leather interior. (So if you ever run into one of those for sale, I have to know!)

This is just a partial underpainting. I wanted to lay the red down first because the bulk of detail work will be on the body of the car. Once this layer is try, I’ll finish up the interior, then move to the rims and bumper/grill area, tires, then the underpainting will be complete.

His underpainting is complete. The next step for this cute little Scottie painting is the darkest darks and the lightest lights.

A little insight: I don’t see black his coat at all. What may appear to you to be black or gray, isn’t. I don’t use even a tiny amount of black oil paint in any of my pet paintings, and haven’t in years. The most natural darks aren’t really black at all in natural light with natural shadows. I was talking to a friend of mine the other day (who is colorblind, go figure), and had a hard time convincing her that clouds aren’t really white, and snow is blue. Now I’ve put her whole color wheel out of whack.

I learned this from Johannes Vermeer. He never painted with black (aka mars black) at all. I believe this is why my pet portraits are always so vivid and lifelike. There’s very little white, and absolutely no black.

Have a look around you today, and really look at the colors of what you’re seeing. I think you’ll be surprised at what you see.

Custom Cat Portrait : Ashley
4? x 6? Oil Painting
Canvas Panel
© 2006 Leanne Wildermuth
All Rights Reserved