Molly (underpainting)

She was looking straight up at me, and as I enlarged the image in my camera, I noticed that I was reflected in her eyes.

( It’s true: dogs really do mirror us.)

I spend a crazy amount of time on underpaintings.  Really, there’s no need for all of this detail.  Still, it’s the way that I work and now I can just get to work painting it…

Dozer Dog Done

No matter how many times I photograph this and play with the image settings, the hues on the right side of the face come out stronger (brighter) than they really are.  Gr.  Once it dries and I can move it around more easily to shoot in different lighting, I will repost with a more accurate image.

For now, I’m just happy that Dozer is done.  I did enjoy painting him, and found that I did about 80% of it upside-down. Although I’m always turning the canvas on the easel to get a better angle on the area that I’m painting (and this canvas is almost as tall as I am), Dozer just always seemed to be upside-down.  I like that, by removing the “image” from the brain’s interpretation, I’m working purely on lines and proportions and colors, not ears and nostrils and eyes.

Dozer almost done

Oops. I owe Rupert an ice cream.  I did paint for a couple of hours yesterday, but then kept painting…  and painting.  Guess I finally just hit the groove with this one.  [Yea!]  Just need to do the nose and then finish up with highlights and other little details.

It’s funny how paintings evolve.  Though rare, I’ve had one or two  spill out over the course of a week.  Others, I find myself trying to draw out of the canvas (ironic that the word draw has these two meanings?), spending an hour here, an hour there, mixing paint and staring at the canvas and dabbing and blending and undoing and making faces.  I always try to invoke the personality of the subject (er, not literally) while working on them, and maybe Dozer is just that slow-pokey kind of guy…

…and this why I will never set fees based on number of hours worked!