puppy paintings!

Hello everyone! 

I'm back with a project I love to do: puppy paintings! Well, I love giving them at least.. sometimes throughout the process I get MAD if it's not going as well as planned.. Here's a little tutorial if you'd like to give it a go yourself! 

First I grid out the picture in Illustrator. If you don't have Illustrator, you can print out the picture and draw out a grid on top of it.

Meet Devo! Richard's pup pup! 

The grid helps with the sizing the sketch. I draw the grid out on the canvas I'm using and determine where I want the pup to be placed. Then I sketch it out referencing the grid on my computer. I used a 12" x 12" canvas in this example.

I started painting before I took a "before" pic. I also didn't like the way he was standing in the before picture, so I put his body in a sitting position. 

Close up view of the face. I've found it's best to paint from back to front, so I always start with the background.

I hated the initial color, so I made it a bit greener. Since Devo is brown, I made the background lighter around his body, and gradually got darker as it went out.

Here he is with some color! I did not like the way he looked in this picture. I had never done a brindle doggie before. I think it's easiest to start with the eyes, then the fur, and save the nose for last.

Here's my setup. I worked on Devo over a period of several days. I redid his coat 4 times. It was "les mis" during the process (aka miserable)..

But he ended up looking alright in the end! 

Everybody's happy! 

Here's another pic of Devo after he rolled around in the grass. I was using it to get another view of that crazy striped fur on his head.

Here's the first one I ever did: 

It's Possum, my sister's doggie. I call her my niecey pup, since she's my niece.. duh. She was a huge painting (24" x 30"), but waaaayyyyy easier because she has short fur that's plain white.

I love doing these. If anyone is interested in one of their pup pup, let me know!