Portrait of Chrome

The Portrait of Chrome feels like a success. At the last minute, I found that I was not happy with a wishy-washy background. So, as you can see, I added detailed grass and darker reds to the mix and the added red in the background gave “Chrome” a more outlined depth in his regal pose. As artists, we are allowed to make last-minute changes.

Portrait Chrome, Great Dane — 11″ x 17″ watercolor on paper
Great Dane portrait of stud, Chrome close-up.

Then it feels all done. It is signed and then sent, thank you Libby Willis of Cornerstone Danes in Oroville WA. I love pet portraiture.

Chrome’s Portrait #5

Graying

Chrome’s Portrait #5 is at an interesting step. We need to make all of the colors in his fur transform into grays. How do I make all of those warm yellow, orange, and brown tones become greys? It is only slightly tricky.

I mix up a Cerulean Blue wash to apply all over his fur. I even apply this Cerulean wash to the white areas and then quickly dab those areas with a paper towel. That is how I remove the majority of the blue from where I want my whitest white to remain. The addition of a blue watercolor wash makes the oranges and browns appear grey.

Did you know?

Anytime that you mix all three of the primary colors together, red, blue, and yellow the result is a tone of gray? If we already have two of the primary colors mixed together to make the background oranges, brown washes in Chromes coat when we add a little blue to it this graying shadowing phenomenon occurs. Try it yourself sometime.

Now, the process is to carefully darken details then carefully add light details till I am satisfied. Each step changes his expression along with his shape and eye appearance. I slowly narrow down the reserved white areas as I go.

Portrait of Chrome #4

Creation of the Chrome portrait #4 proceeds. Most of the big areas are set up with wet on wet splashes of color now. It is time to remove the mastic (resist) that has reserved the white areas. You can see that much of the area being reserved has appeared quite dark.

As I remove the mastic, it is surprising how different it looks with those white areas exposed. This is when it feels as though I must buckle down and very carefully ad details without ruining the great highlights areas just exposed. These light areas of paper are little treasures that need to be protected. My hands move with a lot more precision from here on.

Gray Great Dane #3

“Chrome” is a grey Great Dane, hence the name, he beautifully emulates a shiny metallic color in his coat. His coat reflects somewhat like a mirror, and some of that warm sunset lighting in the background is shown on his fur. I want to capture that warm orangy yellow highlight tint in his coat. I will use New Gamboge with a touch of Alizarin Crimson to drop these highlights in. The photo that best shows this phenomenon is in this post.

In addition to the New Gamboge with a touch of Alizarin Crimson, I will now add touches of Burnt Umber and Burnt Sienna to give different layers of muscle on the fur. This is just another layer of detail as we proceed with the rendering.

Shadow details are added with blues to darken and then a mixture of Cobalt Blue with Paynes Gray to darken it even more. Specifically, in his ears, nostrils, chin, and below his lips on the neck. He is looking like a tan or brown coated Dane right now but there is no need to worry, there are steps in the future that will change this right back to greys.

Portrait of Chrome #2

Chrome 02 Progressing with the portrait of Chrome #2, a beautiful example of the Great Dane breed. I will put the background in first so I can clearly see the character outline of the pet I am painting. Chrome is now surrounded by “wet on wet” background washes in greens and blues. To make his outline pop I am adding a touch of Crimson. He has a great regal pose, at least I really think he does.

Chrome 03 This is probably going to sound crazy to some of you but I tend to put darks in “shadow areas” on my subject first. It gives the impression of a 3d presence beginning in my drawing. It tells me right away if something is off. Then, I gradually add a little more detail, then more, and then more. Typically this means that I am alternating back and forth between “light” details, then “dark” details as I go along.

Portraits

Portraiture

Pet or people portraits are an art venue that I love to pursue. There is no better achievement for me than being able to capture an expression in any portrait. Even simple and quick paintings can capture an emotion.

I love dogs, horses, cats, and bird portraits because I guess I have just loved animals forever. At one point in my life, I had dreams of becoming a veterinarian but then I got the news that more than a dozen years of study were involved with that and my interests shifted. Thank goodness. I would not be having this much fun painting all those critters if I had followed that veterinary dream to fruition.

Pet Portrait Project

A Pet Portrait Project for me is next. This is “Chrome”, he is a stud owned by Cornerstone Danes, a Great Dane breeder in Oroville WA. Her dogs are absolutely beautiful. Please check out her website. Here are two pictures that she sent to me of Chrome, to work from.

Chrome is an absolutely beautiful dog. I loved the position of one of the pictures and have used it as a reference. But, I have gotten a lot of great detail in lighting from the second reference photo. Here is the beginning sketch with mastic (resist) applied to the paper to help preserve the important white areas on the paper.

Pet Portrait of Stella is Done

The pet portrait of Stella is done. I have been able to add tones of neutral brown to her body and face to read as gray to black fur and am now satisfied with Stella. The background is toned down and darkened enough to not compete with her face for attention. I do believe we are complete.

Note the crop lines around her that show the final 11×17 size. Here is how it looks after it is cropped.

Stella’s Face #5

Stella’s face is coming to life now as I add the final darks and lights around her eyes. Her nose is brought out closer to you by the light area around her snout. With each added detail her expression comes more to life.

With her nose, I see that a great deal of detail is needed for it to look real. Specific details in the black and white areas so that the parts show shine and look wet. Shiny things have highlights that are not blended on their edges. They are instead kind of paint-by-number entities.

You have probably noticed that I have done a lot of work on the background painting in the tree/bush branches then changed and did a barrage of leaves instead. These leaves are in colors ranging from light to dark green and even purple. I am still not in love with the background and will probably have to do more on it before I am satisfied.

The Portrait of Stella #4

While doing the portrait of Stella, I continue by adding warm tones to her face along with shadows in blues, gray, and brown around her eyes. A gray or black fur is best started with blue for me, then adding small amounts of purple or reds for different tones. I rarely ever use black pigment. My favorite combo for mixing good dark black colors is, strangely enough, a green and red mixture. These two colors combine to produce a much better black color.

In the background, I am trying out some brown tones on the branches but am getting an uneasy feeling about how distracting those tones are. They are taking away from the focus on her face.