When women had babies in my mother's era, they seemed to dispense Valium like candy to keep they from going crazy. At least, that's the impression I get. My mother ditched the valium at some point and had a cat who had the same effect on her, who she called 'Valium'. Random thought while painting? Not so much. I'm having a ball painting this dog, remembering her personality; she strikes me as the type of dog who could be called 'valium', though her name is Lucy. She seems whimsical and calming at the same time, and the great pose I got from her just lent itself well to swirls as a background. So today I worked on the background some and will work on both that and Lucy at the same time to prevent the 'pasted a dog on a painting' look.

Keep in mind it ain't finished yet! A few more days of work and we'll see the finished product.

I also got some time to work on my 'Prayer' painting from weeks ago--it's filing in nicely, though I can't work on it for too long or else I tend to get into a pattern.

Work begins again!

It's been a long absence, but I am back in the studio once again, minus a body part. That's okay--I didn't need it anymore and it was making life miserable!

Today I'm starting a portrait of a dog owned by the guy who owns the Woodinville Pet Wash, affectionately dubbed 'Pet Wash Mike'. He has agreed to hang portraits of his dogs in his shop as advertisement for me, so I had him bring his lovely dogs over to my studio one rainy day for a photo shoot. I shocked myself by taking some pretty great photos (I guess it's not that shocking as both painting and photography lives or dies on composition) and am working on Lucy, dog number one. She appears to be a Lab/Aussie Shepherd mix and is absolutely adorable!

Since this blog is supposed to be about the process of art, I've posted the dirty little secret of the process--the underpainting! Cover your children's eyes, folks, for this is the equivalent of underwear. Not really, but I thought it was funny. Simply put, and underpainting is the starter painting. It's where I establish composition, lights, darks, shadows, bone structure and the all important nose (where you can make or break a portrait of a dog, come to find out--Truman's nose was painted several times till I got it right).

It's important to note that I don't use a projector to get my underpainting. More and more artists use a projector to trace the photo onto the canvas, but I think that's cheating (really, I'm jealous--I don't have an opaque projector). I feel like if you want a perfect picture of your dog, take a photo. I am more interested in playing with the image with my brush. What comes out is a representation of your dog that is also art--yes, it looks like your dog, but it can also hold up by itself as a neat piece of art once your dog goes over the rainbow bridge. I think that's important so you can enjoy the painting for many years, not just 10-15 before you bawl every time you look at it!

I am painting this time on gesso board--a fiber board painted with gesso (that's what makes it white). I am LOVING the perfect surface and lack of canvas wiggle! I'm working with very watered-down acrylics; this allows me the freedom to mess up--it's not going to be hard to paint over! I study the photo, use pencil to get the most important details on the board, then begin with the paint. This took me about an hour (now I'm eating lunch--leftover chili). I'll go in later and start laying on the paint.

So this is the start! I'll try to post my progress if I can think of interesting things to say along the way :)