When I was commissioned to do a Painting of this cutie Marley, I was very hesitant. You see, I had another painting to live up to of their other dog Manny. In my head I never thought I would be able to come close to as good as it was. Try as I did to talk the client out of it, she had faith in me that I could do it, so I figured.... lets try this! (Thanks again Mel!!) I decided to get back to my schooling and try to remember how I had painted my self portrait in college. |
This is really my proudest accomplishment to date... I remember as a new art student seeing the Senior Class portraits hung in the college gallery and thinking there was NO WAY I'd ever be able to do that.... So when I did... boy was I proud! So anyway, when it came to Marley Dog... I wanted to use this technique again. From what I could remember (after all it was 10 years ago! WHAT!??) This portrait was a lesson in painting Imprimatura. So that is how I attempted Marley, and with great success I think! So... Imprimatura is a term used in painting, meaning an initial stain of color painted on a ground. It provides the painter with a transparent, toned ground, which will allow light falling onto the painting to reflect through the paint layers.
Here is an early photo of my underpainting for Marley.
I used burnt seinna as my background color and started blocking in my mid tones, then brightest brights and darkest darks. Its much easier to do so on a painted background, than on a white canvas, in my opinion. The imprimatura provides and overall tonal unity in the painting, but it is so useful in the initial stages, since it helped me to establish value relations from dark to light.
Another lesson I had to re-teach myself was how to paint whites. I knew from the past how pure white from the tube can really deaden and flatten a painting beyond repair (similarly with black straight from the tube) I also had to keep reminding my self that just because something looks white to your eye... its not. It was hard to add a blue shade or a purple shade, but I just kept remembering this painting I had done. As weird as it felt to be painting blue when I knew it was white snow, it worked! White is NOT white. It took some research to figure out the right combinations for white on Marley, but once I got it down, it went smoothly from there. I have an all white dog watercolor commission coming up that is going to be yet another long lesson into whites and how to create a dynamic painting from what seems a lack of color! Cant wait!
My favorite part was coming up! and thats the details!! Once I really started to work on the eyes, I knew this was going to be great! What fun bringing it to life. I couldn't look at the painting without tilting my head in response to Marley's inquisitive look! haha
Next was the mottled green background to match the clients other painting. This proved easy and I loved how it really made the red/seinna undertones come to life!
More details, a frame and of course a signature and Marley was complete. I learned SO much from this painting, but most of all, not to doubt myself so much and that maybe, just maybe, I really know what I'm doing here! haha