Art of the Dog: Dawn Secord: hound group

Showing posts with label hound group. Show all posts

Monday, October 31, 2016

Portrait of 5 Ibizan Hounds

This was an exciting painting to create. Many of the dogs featured in this painting are no longer with us. There were limited photos of those dogs and a great deal of research was involved to assist me where the photos could not.

I studied photos of Ibizans to make sure the features I was going to add to the photos was indeed consistent in the breed. Questions I asked myself were - what is to be expected on bone structure, nose shape, ear shape, eye shape and muzzle width for the Ibizan Hound?   The photo of Rio, in the middle, was ideal. A few of the photos were fine.   A few of the photos were small and hazy.   With the white on the faces, it could be easy to paint the muzzle too wide or too narrow. A little homework only makes the student stronger. (My motto is that I am always learning - always the student in all that I do.)

The dog in the lower left corner, Annie, was laying down in the reference photo.   It was a challenging pose for the painting. What to do? Well, I have big dogs and I know what big dogs do.   Big dogs lay their heads on the table and beg for food when you are eating....well, they do if you let them around the table while you are eating.   That was the perfect solution. I'd have Annie standing with her head laying on a table.   Easy - well, hopefully it would work out and be easy.   Sometimes I have these ideas to put into a painting and one thing changes one thing that changes another thing and before I know it the "easy" wasn't easy.

The layout of the dogs was also a bit challenging like putting together a puzzle. How could I arrange them to make them into a complimentary composition.   Rio was to be in the middle of the painting, that was requested. How I arranged the others was left to my judgement.

Long story short, with a goal of no one's ears being in anyone else's face, it worked out.   The important factor was to have the subjects' faces as large as possible and fit in all those ears in a flattering arrangement.

Hope you enjoy viewing the painting as much as I enjoyed painting it.   Thank you to Julie for entrusting me with such a large and important project.

Following is one of the proposed compositions for the painting. It was not the final placement as seen above. Also, we used a more recent photo of Rio in the middle - featured below the composition. Such an enjoyable project!!

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

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

Tuesday, July 21, 2015

Dottie the Italian Greyhound

This is Dottie. I met her owners last year and we discussed the possibility of me painting Dottie's portrait. As the conversation progressed, the idea of having two photos of Dottie in her portrait, a head study and a racing shot, became the goal.

Dottie's parents had some amazing reference material for photos. But, I'd never seen an IG race so I met up with them and was able to watch their dogs run in person. I took more reference photos and had a blast. Those little guys ran like rockets!!! I'd taken one of my Irish Setters with me, Bling, and someone asked me if she was racing. We all had a good laugh over that one.

For the painting, they chose to have me paint a head shot of Dottie when she was younger. She had a beautiful collar on but it obscured my view of her markings. So, they took a photo of her in without the collar. Great help!! On Dottie's neck, the colors were subdued to ensure the viewer would be drawn to Dottie's face and to also make it more of a subtle area on which the racing part of the painting would be layered.

For racing part of the painting, the lights and darks were vibrantly emphasized so it would appear Dottie was running right off the painting at you. It was important that the racing image on the painting not blend into the portrait part of the painting.

Hope you enjoy the painting of Dottie as much as I did painting it!!

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

Thursday, March 19, 2009

Basset Hound Puppy "Give Me A Hug"

Here is my latest painting for the puppy series that will be on exhibit in the "Art of the Dog" show at Pinnell Gallery beginning the first weekend of May, 2009. This pastel painting depicts a ten week old Basset Hound puppy.

The name of this painting is "Give Me a Hug". Those little eyes were so cute and pleading that "Give Me a Hug" just seemed to fit. If you are interested in purchasing this pastel painting before the show please email me at fff@linkline.com . The painting will need to be shipped to you after the show.

For those of you who live in Southern California - I hope to see you at the show in May. If you need more information - please email me or call me toll-free at 1-866-393-7111.

Have a great day!

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!