Art of the Dog: Dawn Secord: A painting of Tobie the Yorkie and Murphee the Maltese

Monday, March 20, 2017

A painting of Tobie the Yorkie and Murphee the Maltese

This painting was really awesome to create. The owners of Tobie and Murphee had the perfect photos for our project. Both dogs had passed away and and fortunately their owners had a number of them.

There was a great photo of the boys laying on the back of the sofa. Their expressions in that photo were not ideally what the owners wanted reflected in the painting. However, there were some other photos that had the dogs' expressions that really showed "the boys" personalities.

Usually I stay away from moving body parts like this. Since the dogs had so much coat, it was not as big of a transition as it would be on a short coated dog like a Frenchie (for example). I didn't have to worry about muscle or tendons being off - all would be covered with their hair. For the background, I was a bit concerned the darkness in the photo would over power the dogs. This was discussed with the dogs owners, Kim and Eric, and they agreed.

The photos are all shown below and you can see how the painting came to life.

I asked the owners to share a little bit about the dogs and this is what they told me:

Tobie, our Yorkie, was born August 26, 2004, and Murphee, our Maltese, was born December 26, 2005. They became brothers in the Spring of 2006 and played a tremendous role in our family for the years to follow.

In their relationship with each other, Tobie was the “big brother”. He was very smart, spirited, and welcoming; we considered him an “old soul”, as he was very intuitive in his mannerisms. Murphee, the baby of the family, had a very affectionate and playful character. He carried himself in a regal manner, and was a true and sweet companion to all he trusted. “The Boys”, as we affectionately called them, shared a loving bond and were always together.

This painting, on the back of our sofa, depicts their favorite spot in the house. It gave them a collective, comfortable view over their home, and more importantly, over our family. We are so grateful for our time together, and remain appreciative of their lively spirit – they will be in our hearts forever.

Thank you again for truly capturing their spirit. We are so grateful for this keepsake and your effort.

Eric & Kim

http://www.dawnsecord.com/commissioninformation.html

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