Art of the Dog: Dawn Secord: A pastel painting of Roody

Wednesday, October 30, 2024

A pastel painting of Roody - Irish Setter

This is a painting of Roody. He is a young male Irish Setter that I had been following on Facebook. It was so exciting to receive an email from his owner that she would like to commission me to paint him. We were both going to be in North Carolina in May of 2024. We set up an appointment for me meet them along with Roody to take reference photos of him.

It was so fun to meet Roody and his owners in person. He was such a great dog to photograph for reference material. I have to say, he was a great sport. There was so much going on around us while we were taking the photos. The chaos (with zip lines overhead etc) didn't affect him at all. He took it all in stride. A true Irish! There were so many great photos that we could have used. His owners chose a photo that was soft and showed the endearing side of this lovely dog.

The reference photo of Roody used for his painting. Thank you to his owners for having me paint your special boy.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...: Thank you Dawn this is lovely description of Roody thank you so much for paining him; October 30, 2024 at 11:58 AM

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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!