I’ve just finished Badger’s portrait – now mom & dad will get to have a look at a larger photo of the painting and see if there’s any tweaking before it’s “officially” done.

Quite invigorating to paint on cam again – it’s been a few years! Way back when, in the land of LiveJournal, I started watching Jasmine Becket-Griffith paint on cam, and thought it was the coolest thing so I had to go get a webcam and do it myself. I stopped because I had some funky people stalking me (I did it on Yahoo IM then, and would get IM’s during my painting sessions, not very productive)! So now this little do-hickey seems to do the trick, and I’ll be able to paint live without a problem. Yay!

I’ll scan and post details when all is said & done on Badger’s painting. If you tuned in while I was in the studio, thanks for stopping in – and I’d love your feedback on the cam!

Hey all, I’ll be finishing up Badger‘s portrait on cam if you’d like to have a peek see over my shoulder. I’ve tested my studio cam in both Firefox and IE and it appears to be showing up well and has a decent refresh rate. You can find it in my sidebar, top right.

I will try to leave a note in front of the cam if I’m going to be away for any extended period of time, and if I happen to shut it off (or if the puppy chews through my USB extension cables while I’m not looking), it’ll say “offline”.

I hope I turned the volume off, ’cause I’m sure you don’t want to hear me sing.

I’ve just finished Badger’s underpainting. Now, don’t be frightened – I know it looks muddy and kinda blech right now, this will all be refined in the next stage, which is the addition of layers and layers of fur. She looks a bit flat, and a bit dark, and her eyes are not as glassy as they will be when I complete the portrait.

She is beauuutiful. I love Huskies, always have. When they are so well taken care of, like this one very obviously is, they are the most wonderful dogs. They love to please their parents and I’ve seen them become very sad and troubled when they go ignored. Very emotional creatures – and stunning, to boot.

Back in the beginning of 2005, Karen came to me about her baby girl, Maddie, who passed over the rainbow bridge. I remember painting Maddie like it was yesterday – how she tugged on my heartstrings then, and how compassionate and loving I thought her Momma was to have her portrait done. Over the years, I’ve painted all of Karen’s pets and they have definitely all touched my heart and become an extended furbaby family to me. I think about her and her babies regularly, so it was very sad to hear that Callie had passed away.

Part of me was so torn yesterday when I started contemplating her background color. I wanted to paint her face on a cloud with a sky blue background, like Maddie. But I kept being pulled away from that thought and my mind filled with this gold color, a rich warm gold like sunshine was filling the canvas around her. That’s just how it happened, too.

Morris’ background is a really rich, beautiful and leathery chocolate brown color. He just kind of “gave” me this color. Let me try to explain how that works, because to me – the background color is just as much a part of the portrait as the subject itself. It is an extension, a mood. Color conveys feeling, and each pet says something different to me. They’re all individuals, so they deserve more than a standard blanket background color that matches the sofa.

Sometimes, the background color just comes to me while I’m looking at the photos I’ve been given to work from. His reference photo is a bit blurry and small, pixelated with a lot of flash. But even though the reference might be bad, the only thing I really need to see his his personality coming through in the photos. Knowing the anatomy of a cat is extra helpful, and I think since I’ve painted so many cat portraits – the anatomy is embedded in my mind now. With Morris, though, it was the personality that I saw that led me to mix this color for his portrait.

I just felt it, and that’s what I love most about what I do.

Simba doesn’t have much background since it’s a really nice & big macro of his kitty face, so the shot is more of a side view to show how the color wraps around the canvas edge. I chose this color because when looking at his photo, I was immediately drawn to this really cool shade of lime in the reflection of his eyes. Since he’s an orange tabby and he’s just got a hint of the lime in his eyes, it will really make him pop and give the portrait loads of dimension.

Boo and Kiwi’s background are done, they’re a nice grape purple with a deep violet shadow. Green and purple are M’s favorite colors (my client’s daughter), so they’ll be really cool portraits since those will be the primary colors.

I may add more to the background once the birds have been painted, to give them a bit more of a pop art feel. Realism in the foreground against a funky pop art background would be perfect for a teen bird lover, I think!

I chose a really beautiful royal blue gradient for Badger’s portrait. She’s a silver husky with brilliant icy blue eyes so this shade of blue in the background will just make her come alive on the canvas. When the background dries, I’ll work in her underpainting.

I’ve added a detail shot of Emily’s face below, so keep on reading. For anyone interested in having your own custom portrait done, you can view my custom portrait packages here in my shop. You can quick-order by selecting a size and checking out through Paypal right here.