This is Chloe. She is a mixed breed dog ( lab, husky, and ???) with the absolute sweetest personality. I met her a few weeks back when her owners brought her over so we could talk about their portrait commission and Chloe spent the time waiting patiently and obediently in my kitchen while we talked. She was very well behaved and was wonderfully cooperative when we took a few pictures for the portrait. It was so nice to work with such a well trained dog! I wanted to get photos of her in different light because though she is a mostly black dog she had some beautiful brown hairs dispersed through out her coat and around her eyes. Her owners wanted to be sure that could be seen in the painting. I also wanted to have a good strong light from one side so that there would be more depth to her black coat.Black dogs are always a challenge to paint and it's really important to have good reference material as so much detail can be lost in a bad photo. Good, natural lighting is important. No flash!! Her owners brought several photos taken in bright sunlight and we were able to take photos in soft, semi-cloudy afternoon light which gave us some nice shadows and detail. It also brought out the warmer tones in her coat. The result of good reference and being able to see the dog in person resulted in the portrait you see here. The background color, which I apologize for it not showing up well when I photographed the painting, was just a simple flat wash in a very light, warm tone to compliment the cool colors in her coat and bring out the warm tones. My clients were thrilled which always makes my day!
Now that this commission is done I'm celebrating by taking some time to paint a few birds for fun. I have another peregrine falcon sketched out and will be putting some paint to that in a few days. Hopefully, my idea will come together and you'll get to see it here!
