I came up with, what I thought was at the time, a great idea of painting my older brother Jakob’s pet dogs for him as a birthday present. I had already started a sketch of one of his dogs, named Jazz, so I thought it’d would go quickly and be pretty easy – maybe only slightly challenging.
As it was, many, many hours of painting and studying went into finishing all the paintings. This post focuses on the first painting I worked on.
So as I said, I started with a sketch, just a quick one. I didn’t spend too much time on the sketch as the detail was going to be in the painting. But I do find it easier to paint with a sketch as it keeps me focused and gives me an idea of what I’m working towards and I find I have a much better or more accurate painting at the end of the process.
The challenge on this painting was trying to express the energy she has in her eyes. She is a very bright and exuberant dog with endless energy. I think the part I enjoyed most was mixing all the colours on the painting using only the three primary colours in a paint palette and successfully mixing the colours for the tongue.
This painting was painted using Jo Sonja’s Artists Acrylic Paints: Titanium White, Ultramarine Blue, Yellow Light & Transparent Magenta.
And I’ll leave you with a couple photos of Jazz:
Left: Jazz and Fred at the dog park. This one really showcases her energetic eyes. (Click for a larger image)
Right: Jazz trying to coax Toby into playing a game of ball with her. He doesn’t look interested though. Haha.
Kelly's Art Table 