Here is another stage of Lothar! We have been busy this last week, we have taken some time off work as we have had family staying, we almost had xmas early as one of the days they were here, i cooked a lovely roast with all the trimmings xmas crackers and all!

So now im back to work, slightly behind on my emails and work but not too bad. I have been working also on a labrador coloured pencil drawing in between lothar while he has been in the drying stages. The client specified that he didn’t want the portrait to be online as it was a surprise, just in case the recipient saw. I am quite amenable to this as it would be terrible for a client to come across their pet being painted. Its really only applicable to recipients who are on the internet all the time and are likely to see my website, so it doesn’t happen very often. The Labrador is very nearly complete so thats great.

I’m hoping to have another stage of Lothar online tomorrow, im still battling with these dark evenings when taking photos. Painting in the evening is absolutely fine under my daylight lamp, its just the flash that seems to be the problem. Stay tuned for the next installment soon!

Well here is the third stage of my pet portrait of the rottie in oils.Taking photos of the artwork in the evening here in the studio of a black dog is not easy! I thought i was having trouble on an over cast day! I normally take a photo before i start work in the morning but with lots of things happening here in the studio today i didn’t get time. I have created the second layer over the black areas of the dog and started adding the rich warm browns and siennas in his coat. I have also add the lighter detailed areas on the black too. Next stage will be online tomorrow – hopefully it will be a little sunnier and better light!

Here is the second stage of Lothurs pet portrait in oils. At this stage im blocking in the main colours of the dog, which are primarily black. For those of you who are unfamiliar with oils, or who are learning to paint pets in this medium, the black colour in oils takes much longer to dry than any other colour in the range, so you really have to be careful not to paint too thickly, particularly if you are working to a deadline. You can use various mediums in with your colours to help them dry quicker, but im not using any on this pet portrait. My next stage in the painting is to start to add some of the lovely rich warm tones of browns and siennas into the dogs chest, under his chin and round his mouth.

Here is my latest commissioned pet portrait that i have been working on. Its a beautiful rottweiler dog named Lothar. Rottweilers are proud dogs and make wonderful pets when well trained. I think the photos that my client took of Lothar really shows a beautiful proud dog, as his hes sitting tall in the portrait and looks alert and ready to go! My client took about 10 photos for me to choose from, and of really high quality which is just what a pet portrait artist needs to complete a good quality oil painting.

My stage one photo shows that i have drawn in Lothar and blocked in the colours in the background. Again the light here is very poor in the studios today so the colours in the painted background aren’t natural, however it gives you some idea of how its coming along. I will be adding stage two later on today so stay tuned! :)

Hi everyone!

This is the final scan of Dravels Pet Portrait that i have been working this week. He was painted on 3mm thick stretched canvas to the size of 10 x 8.  I have been battling with the light when taking photos of the artwork at various stages, and I resorted to taking a scan for the last work in progress picture instead, as the light has been so dull, being winter here. The scan below came out better and the colours are pretty much right. Enjoy!

This is very nearly the final stage of Dravels pet portrait, i have to add a few more areas of detail with a small paintbrush and pull it all together. The light in here was really overcast today so i scanned the portrait in instead of photographing it. Its not too bad to scan smaller portraits in during the painting process, but larger ones would be a lot more difficult as you can imagine. The colours have come out a lot better anyway!

Heres the third stage of Dravels Pet Portrait in oils. The weather here is very overcast and its raining outside today so the studio is very dull. This means is quite difficult to take photos of the artwork, even with the lights on. I have a daylight bulb but this adds shine on the canvas and paint, so its sometimes best to take photos with the lamp turned off with just the main light o in the room. Of course this will give a warm orange cast which is difficult to remove in photoshop, or using the tungsten setting on the camera it turns it very cold and blue. So I have tried to get as close as i can to the colours below, but its not exact. Hopefully the final scan will give a better overall feel of the colours!

Heres the second stage of the Pet Portrait of Dravel. I have updated it on my website too today, hopefully the next stage will be online this afternoon!

This is the new portrait i have started, the first stage is below. Its an 8 x 10 oil painting on canvas.

Here is my latest portrait of Ernie the Aussie Shepherd. The clients asked if they could have Ernie depicted outside, so the main photo was of Ernie on a sofa and i swapped this for an outdoors scene that the clients chose. The lighting was the same and i think it works well.

I am now using my old blog as a work in progress and i have been revamping it over the weekend adding some of my new paintings in progress on there. You can see Ernie’s work in progress by visiting my newly named ‘pet portrait work in progress blog‘ I have already started a new painting this weekend too, so i will add the progress to that on there as well as my main website! Ill be back soon with the final scan!