Hannah: 11x14 oil on linen.
Our dog Hannah got another portrait painted! I used a very simple approach for this painting and got it laid down very quickly - trying to replicate what I would do if painting from life.
This is a portrait of Jake. 20x24 oil on linen.
I used a fairly limited palette: burnt sienna, cobalt blue, ivory black, ultramarine blue, yellow ochre and titanium white.
Jake - my next portrait project. (Taken with instagram)
This morning’s work: self portrait in charcoal on gray Strathmore 500.
These photos show how I build a simple but very strong shipping crate which is suitable for paintings up to approx. 22” x 44”. I make the front and back pieces from 1/8” hardboard and the sides from standard 3/4” thick pine.
The painting is placed in the crate face down and rests on top of thin spacer strips which are glued to the sides. These prevent the surface of the painting from touching the hardboard panels.
Sandwiching the pine sides between the hardboard panels makes the crate extremely rigid and impervious to most types of damage that can be inflicted during shipping.
I use a few power tools such as a table saw, a compound mitre saw and a router to make these crates, but it is possible to use hand tools alone.
Lady’s portrait day 3 (continued):
I worked some more on the shadow on her shoulder and emphasized the lights and darks in her ears a tiny bit. I’ve reached the point where I’m worried that anything else I do to the painting will spoil it.
Better to leave it alone, sign it and put it to one side.
Lady’s portrait day 3:
I wiped out the bottom left area to ease the transition into the bright white paint around her neck and added some spots of thin paint onto the canvas as a motif.
I also spent some time working on the shadow areas, brushing a lighter value blue gray into the existing paint.
My intention when starting this portrait was to have a neutral blue-grey or blue-green background of some type, but I’ve used this a lot in the past and I decided to go in a different direction. Instead I used a mixture of burnt sienna, cobalt blue and yellow ochre applied transparently (ie very thin paint) and wiped it off with a paper towel in places. I also used this mixture to tone down some of the orange.
Next I added some more white paint (a mix of white, cadmium yellow and cadmium yellow deep) to the left shoulder to make the edge a bit more loose.
Lady’s portrait day 2 (continued):
Now I’ve added in the warmer grays, the patches of color on her face and some of the highlights in the dark fur. I’ve also worked some more on the highlights and dark spots in her fur. I made the spots on her nose cooler and lighter in value.
Lastly I spent some time softening edges where needed. Now I’ll leave the painting until tomorrow and decide where to take it from here. The paint will still be wet enough to work with if I need to put in some background.
Lady’s portrait day 2:
After leaving the block in to sit overnight I really started to get to work on the painting.
First I laid in the darks - a warm mix of ultramarine and burnt sienna on the left and a slightly cooler, bluer dark on the right. I also painted the highlights on the nose. I like to start there and work backwards.
The next step was to put in most of the shadow side. It looks far too blue when first put on the canvas, but I matched the color and value carefully so I know it will look right once the rest of the colors are laid down.
Then I painted in the eyes without too much detail.
Notice that the autofocus on my camera does not work when there’s wet paint on the canvas. It’s like trying to take a photo of the surface of a mirror.
Lady’s portrait day1:
For this portrait I used oil primed linen (Claessens #12 DP) stretched on 14x16 standard stretcher strips.
I started the painting by toning the canvas with a mixture of burnt sienna and ivory black. Then I laid in the outlines using a color similar to raw umber - a mix of cobalt blue, burnt sienna and yellow ochre. I use this “faux umber” rather than raw umber because it won’t dry so quickly. If I come back to the painting the next day and find something wrong with the drawing I can easily correct it.
If you check out the shape of the ears against the reference photo you can see that they don’t quite match. I’m using a second photo to show me how they look when they’re perked up a bit.
I then blocked in the darker areas of the painting with a mix of burnt sienna and yellow ochre, applied very thinly. This will complement the warm light/cool shadows scheme that I’ll be using. My plan is to let this show through in places.
