Painting Pet Portraits – Cat Painting – Kitty

I had drawn a sketch of my brother in law’s cat, named ‘Kitty’, quite a while ago – probably around March – and quite a lot of days later during the thankful quiet moments at work I was able to finish the painting. You can clearly see from the photos that I did a base coat first where I was getting all the colours in.

And then the last one is where I fiddled around with the detailing. I had to re-do the nose and the bottom jaw line a few times. I was happy with the way the fur on the chest came out. Some of the whiskers I think I did a little bit too thick – heavy handed technique.  I liked that I put the plain grey background on it as well. I plan to frame this painting and give it to my brother in law.

Painting Pet Portraits – Jakob’s Birthday Present 2015 – Dog Paintings & Birthday Card

Although I wasn’t able to finish the portraits of Jakob’s pets, I was able to complete Jakob’s birthday card on time!

Growing up, us kids (and even my mother to an extent) were all Halo buffs. The Halo I’m talking about is the video-game series that has spawned an entire universe including 20 novels, live-action movies, tv-series and anime-series and multiple fan made series using the game engine. It’s won awards for its story-line/script and music. The main character of the Halo series of games is the Master Chief who is a Spartan, taking from the legend of the original Sparta Spartans, you know the 300 etc, warriors bred for war.

The Spartans in the game were taken as children, genetically enhanced and trained for combat. It’s a really epic story line, so if you haven’t read the books or played the games or seen any of the shows I really recommend them. If you’re no good at games, chances are someone you know plays and loves the series so just watch them play to get the story-line (that’s what my mum did – she watched us play. She’d get grumpy if we continued the story without her haha!)

Anyway, a big part of the Master Chief’s story is the fact that he does not surrender, he does not give up, he will defy the odds and he will win to save humanity. I think my older brother really admires that tenacity and pugnaciousness. So that’s the inspiration behind this card.

I used papers from the Basic Grey Kelly Purkey’s Second City 6 x 6 paper pad and I believe the dark navy is from the Basic Grey pb&j 6 x 6 paper pad. The card is a very simple design and construction. The papers from the Second City Collection look very futuristic and very much like a lot of the Halo HUD & menu designs.

I don’t think I need to bore you with how the card was constructed as I think any crafter would be able to figure it out by looking at it.

The quote, ‘Never Surrender’ I hand wrote with my versa mark clear embossing ink pen and I used white embossing powder and heat set it. On the inside I wrote another quote to further inspire my brother: Strength does not come from winning. Your struggles develop your strengths. When you go through hardships and decide not to surrender, that is strength – Arnold Schwarzenegger.

Unfortunately my older brother has been cursed with bad luck and a Murphy’s law kind of life so I think it’s important to remind people, especially our loved ones, to keep on keeping on.

Jakob’s birthday present, a series of paintings of each of his dogs, was unfortunately not completed on time. If you’re interested and you missed out on the previous posts, you can check out the individual posts for each pet portrait by clicking on the name of the dog.

Toby – (center)

Ralph – (top left)

Jazz – (bottom left)

Fred – (bottom right)

Jaeger – (top right)

Above is after I decided I would have Toby as a larger canvas when I had completed Jazz and Fred and had begun work on Jaeger. I had also drawn the sketch of Ralph. I really liked the alignment of having Toby’s big rectangle canvas in the center surrounded by Jakob’s other dogs.

Another photo showing the progress – these I was taking to try and motivate me to continue. Like saying, ‘look at how awesome this is going to be when it’s finished!’ For this photo and the rest of the photos, I had changed the arrangement of Fred and Jaeger.

This one shows all four surrounding dogs complete with only Toby waiting to be finished.

And finally! All five pet portraits painted and complete. Toby really does look fantastic. I originally wasn’t going to do a background for any of them. Now with Toby looking really majestic, I’m having thoughts about putting backgrounds on the rest of the portraits.

Let me know what you think in comments below.

Painting Pet Portraits – Jakob’s Birthday Present 2015 – Dog Painting 5 of 5 – Toby

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.

Painting Pet Portraits – Jakob’s Birthday Present 2015 – Dog Painting 4 of 5 – Ralph

This poor puppy dog is Ralph, who I actually forgot about until mid-way through painting Jaeger when I was searching for photos of Toby as he was going to be the final painting. When I stumbled across the only photo of Ralph that we have, I exclaimed, ‘oh my gosh, Ralph! Aww…’.

So I had to use the fourth and last canvas to paint a portrait of Ralph. Ralph was originally my younger brother’s puppy, but after my parents divorced, my younger brother went to live with our father and they were unable to take Ralph with him. So my older brother Jakob adopted him and cared for him.

I was sure I had some photos of Ralph as a puppy and some other ones of him as an adult but I cannot find them anywhere!. I searched through all my old photos and spent an entire day going through computer backup files and old CDs to try and find some more photos of him but there is only the one.

Above is the base coat I completed in one painting session. Originally I was going to make the chest a brighter white but my paint brush ended up being dirty from the browns when I started painting and I actually liked the way the colour turned out and I thought it was more accurante.

Ralph is a mixed breed consisting of I think about four or five different hunting dogs and I think a little bit of mastiff rolled in. He was HUGE! But walked silently. It was very disconcerting for visitors to turn around and see a massive dog staring at them and the visitor hadn’t heard a dog approach. Those innate hunting dog skillz.

He always had a sad deep expression. When Jakob saw the finished painting of Ralph he said that I captured the ‘Ralph-ness’.

Here is the reference photo, the only photo of Ralph:

Painting Pet Portraits – Jakob’s Birthday Present 2015 – Dog Painting 3 of 5 – Jaeger

When I was painting these pet portraits, I wasn’t really thinking of making a blog post about them so I didn’t take as many progress photos – or if I did I have totally lost where they’re saved. As a result, I don’t have a photo of the sketch of Jaeger.

Jaeger was adopted from my older brother’s friend because he was getting too big for her to handle. As an adolescent he was almost the same size as Fred and so still had room to grow. I haven’t seen him for a little while so I don’t know how big he is now. As well as that, the photo I had to work with at the time was in horrible lighting so it was very difficult to paint.

Because the lighting in the reference photo was so bad, it was all bright sun flare and dark shadows for the rest, it was hard to make out Jaeger’s colouring. The above photo is an in-progress shot where I’m laying down the foundation for where everything is going to go and get a feel for the shading. I had a lot of trouble with the placement of the right eye (Jaeger’s left) and had to repaint it several times.

I think his snout has an almost Disney-like look to it and it put me in mind of The Tramp from Lady & and The Tramp.

After one last long and arduous painting session, I finally had him to a stage where I could call the painting complete (though that eye still bothers me…)

I think knowing the pet’s personality when you’re painting really helps. I think that was why painting both Jazz and Fred was so enjoyable. Jazz was an adopted dog as well but I lived with her and helped care for her for quite a few years so I know her personality. Fred lived with my older brother and I from when he was a puppy. The deal being that I get to do all the fun plays and cuddling and Jakob, as the owner, would have to do all the cleaning and training.

Jaeger I don’t really know as I didn’t ever spend much time with him and what I had seen of him led me to grimace. He constantly chases his tail like a lunatic and he’s very dirty. When he pees, he pees all over his front legs and just things like that. So as a result I haven’t seen his personality.

But he’s not my dog and I don’t have to live with him so it doesn’t really matter, Jakob loves and cares for him and that’s all that matters. All three dogs so far have been German Shepherds. Jazz is what is called a blue German Shepard, Jaeger a sable German Shepard and Fred has the standard black and tan colouring that most people think of when they think of a German Shepard.

With that, I leave you with a photo of Jaeger waiting for his cage to be cleaned.

Painting Pet Portraits – Jakob’s Birthday Present 2015 – Dog Painting 2 of 5 – Fred

My older brother, Jakob, has had a total of five dogs: Toby, Ralph, Jazz, Fred, and Jaeger. After a successful painting of Jazz, I thought, why not paint Fred as well? My brother had only two dogs at the time, when I started this project but he was looking after his friend’s dog Jaeger, who he later adopted.

 

Just like with the painting of Jazz, I started off with a rough sketch on my canvas. I got the square canvases in a four pack from Spotlight, it was on sale at the time so I think it was only like seven or eight dollars.  The sketch came along quite well and I enjoyed the entire process of drawing and painting Fred. It was so fluid and relaxing. This is definitely my favourite painting so far not just because of how it looks but because it just came together as it should; it was like magic.

I took some artistic licencing with the colouring and made him a little redder, but I think it really worked for the painting and added the bit of drama and helped me work through the shading on Fred’s face, which is really dark. I don’t think I have mastered the values of dark on dark yet. I absolutely love the way the eyes came out and the expression is spot on.

I’m flabbergasted that this is the best painting (in my opinion) and it was the one that felt the easiest as I didn’t have to struggle with it over multiple painting sessions over multiple days. One session approximately one hour and that’s all it took. I must have been in the zone!

And on that note, I’ll leave you with some adorable photos of Fred:

Left: Fred resting after a day of play on the Batman Kiddy Chair.
Right: I took this photo of Fred because I was so impressed that as a puppy he was unafraid or unaffected by the vacuum cleaner. Most dogs I’ve ever encountered or lived with have reacted with fear or aggression when a vacuum cleaner is turned on or brought out of the closet. Fred was completely unaffected, bored even. It was his first time being around a vacuum cleaner as well. Fred was bought with the intention of training him as a security K9 and this was really remarkable for my brother to know that he had a fearless puppy.

Since then Fred has grown and through much rigorous training has become a qualified security dog and is one of the best and obedient K9’s in the industry.

 

But he hasn’t gone from cute to scary. He still has his cute doggy moments:

I think every dog holds elements of their puppy nature with them throughout adulthood. Haha! The same expression from puppy to adult – take a look back at his face as a puppy next to the vacuum cleaner; it’s the same!

Painting Pet Portraits – Jakob’s Birthday Present 2015 – Dog Painting 1 of 5 – Jazz

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.