And finally Toby. Toby was my older brother’s first dog who my older brother grew up with and was his best friend throughout high school. Mum bought Toby from the pet store for only $65 and considering the price of even the bitser-breeds at pet stores these days – Toby was a bargain.
Toby I think is the most cherished of Jakob’s pets and was the beginning of a legacy. He holds a special place in all of our family’s hearts and as such, I decided instead of getting another smaller square canvas, I would get a larger canvas to really have Toby stand out from the other portraits.
When I was painting both Ralph and Jaeger I really started to stress, as I was getting pressed for time by that stage. My older brother’s birthday fast approaching. I had drawn the sketch of Toby before I arrived at my older brother’s birthday party and I started painting the base coat (pictured above) at the party.
As I had missed the deadline from there… I did procrastinate quite a bit. When Easter Sunday arrived (Jakob’s birthday was at the start of February by the way to give you an idea of how late I was with completing the paintings), I went to my mother’s house for a family dinner and took the Toby base-coated canvas with me – with the intention of finishing the painting that night.
Through a very frustrating painting session where I could not get anything to look the way I wanted it to especially Toby’s legs, I originally had the intention of doing a full body portrait but it just was not coming together (it made me reminisce and long for the good times I had of painting Fred), I ended up chucking a hissy-fit and did a big scribble stroke across Toby’s legs.
Quite a few deep breaths later and with the process of using a sponge to fill in a background, I calmed down. The background had become necessary not only to cover up Toby’s legs but the strokes of failure I had run over the canvas and that was where I left the progress that night.
Many days later, I sat down after a hard night at work with a big slice of cheese cake and some green tea (which I almost washed my brush in a few times) and I sat down to do some more work on Toby’s portrait.
I don’t have my pre and post hissy-fit progress photos. The above is after my home session I did while eating delicious cheesecake – trying to zen. I did some work on his ears and his nose and muzzle, I finished off the base for his left cheek and tried to add some more fur definition on his forehead.
Finally getting somewhere. The above was after another hour long painting session. Making changes and additions here and there. I’m really pleased with how Toby’s nose and the end of his snout came out. Toby was such a grandpa as a dog and I really wanted to get his grey on his mouth right. I also finally braved the eye on the left (Toby’s right eye) and added some more fur detailing. I also darkened the reddish colour of the mid and lower portion of the background and had some fun with blues and reds on either side of where his body becomes the background.
At that stage I was thinking it was pretty much finished but there was just something missing. After studying the painting for a while, I added a little light coloured line in a crescent shape at the bottom edge of each eye and it really completed the painting.
I’m glad the painting turned out this way, with the background and everything. It was a lot of fun. And I think it makes it seem a lot more spiritual like Mufasa in the Lion King.
Toby was a favourite pet and dear in all our hearts; he is sadly missed. Dog’s lives are all too short. We have many fond memories of Toby. He was a friend to cats, protector of kittens, father of two litters, a ladies-man and and obedient and loyal friend.
Toby was a one of a kind wonder dog who will live forever in our memories:
Left: Toby enjoying a chat with mum’s cat, Precious, who is comfortably snuggled next to him.
Right: Toby with his son Shep (my dog) both looking interested and most likely ready to play.
Toby sitting with Jazz – this photo was to show Jazz ‘sitting pretty’ as she was constantly sitting lazy with her legs flopped to the side. Toby was a very intelligent dog. He was a lot older in this photo and around that time I was trying to teach Jazz how to ‘roll over’. I didn’t expect Toby to learn because he was an old dog and I didn’t want to wear him out doing tricks. Jazz was having a little trouble getting a hang of the trick and the whole time, Toby was just observing.
Eventually Toby just did the trick (having never been taught it before) – rolling over when I commanded Jazz – without going through the steps one’s supposed to take to teach the trick to the dog. He’s picked it up just from me trying to teach Jazz. I was pretty tempted to give him the entire bag of treats because of how impressed I was with him. With Toby getting old we didn’t ask him to do as much as he used to and I guess I had forgotten just how intelligent he was and it really showed that an old dog can learn a new trick.
And to finish off this post, my favourite photo of Toby, taken by my dad, when Toby was younger – I believe he was in his teens. You can see the wisdom in his eyes even in his youth.
He was such a great dog.
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