Art of the Dog: Dawn Secord: Emilee - A Seal Point Himalayan cat

Saturday, July 13, 2019

Emilee - A Seal Point Himalayan cat - Mission Impossible

This painting of Emilee was a covert operation. Two sisters, living on separate sides of the great USA, saw my work. One sister, I'll refer to as sister X, contacted me and wanted to arrange for me to paint the other sister's cat, Emilee.

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

The painting would be a surprise.    During the months that passed while on my waiting list, I stalked Emilee's parents' Facebook pages and posts. I was ever vigilant of any photos of Emilee. Photos were copied and pasted to a file on my computer.   Concurrently, sister X was also secretly gathering reference photos of Emilee for me.

You know, it is difficult to collect reference material when people don't know you are collecting reference material. Photos were too dark, photos were to small, photos were too far away. Dog gone it!!!   Then I found it. Yep, the ideal reference photo, well almost. Emilee had a scowl on her face in the ideal photo. She looked a tad irritated. Fear not, I had many other photos from which to glean a happy Emilee expression.

The painting was finished and ready to ship.   The delivery date was planned for recipient sister's birthday.   Federal Express, another unknowing party in this surprise, delivered right on schedule.   Anticipation filled the air. Sister X and I waited for the surprise to be unveiled.   It was killing us. Recipient sister's husband had a busy work schedule and was not getting to Federal Express to retrieve the package.   OH MY GOSH!!!!   Finally, he gets the package, quickly sets it in their house, and heads back off to work. He had no idea what the box was. Okay - more waiting.

Later in the day, sister X received the long awaited phone call - crying and laughing filled her ears.  A thrilled recipient sister had found and opened the painting of her beloved Emilee.

Sister X had kept the secret for all those months.   It is so difficult to keep such a secret.   I admire her self control.

On another fun side, the recipient sister (Cindy) loves to follow the antics of my dog, Bling, on Facebook. For a fun twist, I had Bling as an additional secret agent, delivering the package to my car to take to Federal Express. Thank you to Cindy for loving my girl, Bling, and following her on Facebook.

Sister X (Diane) was so awesome and such a dream to work with. I am not sure who received the best present. Was it Diane (sister X) for a successful secret gift? Was it Cindy (and her husband, Mark) for receiving their special gift? Or, was it me for being able to be part of such a wonderful and loving family by creating a painting for them? It has to be a three way tie!

A few of the many reference photos of Emilee. Isn't she a doll!

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Pastel Painting in Progress - French Bulldog

Here is a painting in progress. The pastel paintings are done very much in the same way an oil painting is done. I start with a base color. Usually I work with a precolored surface. With oil painting I would lay in a foundation color so the white canvas wouldn't show through. So this is the same basis. Since I am right handed I work from left to right unless it is a landscape or still life in which case the entire surface is worked uniformly. With pet portraits, so I don't damage an area that is completed, the surface is worked from left to right. While working an area of the subject I lay in mid tone values first - then work light to dark. With pastels an artist can "fill the tooth" of the surface so it is important not to over work any areas. Once the entire subject is painted I go back and reinforce the lightest lights and darkest darks. My greatest area of interest is the eyes. If the eyes aren't right the entire painting will look odd. If the painting is about a sleeping animal it is important to convey the comfort of the animal.

Oil Painting in Process

The following pictures show an Oil Painting in process. The first images show my beginning sketch. I use a common pencil, ruler and an eraser. Once the beginning sketch is satisfactory the sketch is secured with a layer of black oil paint. When the first layer is dried I apply a base color over the entire canvas. I love working on a burnt sienna foundation. There are paintings where I start just working directly on the white canvas and there is no base layer or foundation. It really depends on the painting. From the base foundation I start layering colors. It is a slow process due to drying time. This is where it really becomes fun. I should really make a recording of my husband saying, "You're done - stop messing with it!" Thanks for taking a peek. This painting is of a cat named Lynxy!