The Evolution of Dan...

…. the story of a commission.

As with most of the work that I do it begins with being emailed a series of photos taken either by the owner of the pet, or in this case by a friend who has commissioned the portrait.

From these I choose the one I find most striking or appealing. I am looking for two elements: 1) that the pose of the pet convey as much personality as possible and 2) that the setting draws you into the picture.  The second is less important as if it is not present then I will invent my own background.

In this case I chose the picture of Dan in a doorway.  His body position and the expression on his face is interesting and the doorway makes a natural frame while the corridor beyond it gives a good perspective.

From this I do a couple of brief sketches, one in charcoal and one in pencil to get a better idea of the shape of Dan and what elements would bring more of sense of personality to the final painting.

In this case I also did a watercolour sketch to help me decide on what colours to use in the background and Dan himself.

I then proceed to the final picture, in this case done in oils on board.  I sketch out the background and Dan in pencil on board.  I then do washes of colour for the background and the floor.  Slowly building these out.  This piece had two particular challenges, the wooden effect of the floor and the bright sunlight on the wall behind them.   When I have got the background to a point I am happy with I start working on Dan himself, using various versions of yellow and pink based greys mixed with impasto medium to slowly build up the image, and give a texture and impression of fur to the picture.  The element that gave me the most difficulty here was the shadow line down the centre of his torso.  I went for the version in the blog but then after discussing it with the person commissioning the painting went for what you see on the portraits page.

As you can also see the painting was well received by the subject himself