My Blog

My Dog Painting

I decided to paint a majestic hunting dog since I have a Black English Setter, Victoria and a Pitt mix, Roxanne. I first chose a brown sanded pastel paper so that the brown paper would act as a under painting and pull everything together.

Starting with the Head of the dog and emphasizing the details of the eyes I laid in the basic tones of the body and the wash of the background done with a flat smooth sponge which spreads the pigment in the background allowing the brown paper to show through. In this segment of the painting I was much more spontaneous and fresh in my approach. I then added several tones of blue for the sky giving the dog a sense of drama with darkened areas suggesting trees and bushes.

Lastly I added the brown patches and tonalities  in the body of the dog to give it shape and form. To really finish the painting I put in the detail of the fur joining it to the background and the blades of grass around the feet to pull everything together.

Man’s best friend which deserves a majestic painting !