This dog portrait is unlike my usual “head-shot.” My friend Jenny messaged me with a photo, sadly saying her daughter-in-law Lindsey’s dog Bree had just died at age 15. She asked if I could do a painting from the photo, as a surprise for Lindsey. I was grateful for the opportunity and eager to tackle the interesting pose.
Unfortunately, the backlighting which helped to capture a dramatic pose simultaneously knocked out the details in the shadows. The photo was small and low resolution, adding another challenge to working from it. I was especially concerned depicting Bree’s eyes, since they were nearly indistinguishable in the photo; I saw from another photo Jenny supplied that Bree’s eyes were big, brown and soulful… and an important component in bringing life to my painting.
In the reference photo, I also liked the contrast between the soft out-of-focus background and detailed foreground. The asymmetric arrangement with the dog off to the right made for a pleasant and unusual composition. So I decided to stay true to the reference photo in my portrait, and we selected a 16″ x 12″ canvas.
The work in process shows how I started with the background shapes and colors, blending them softly to look out of focus. I do this by dabbing Golden acrylic glazing liquid on the still-wet fluid acrylics painted on the canvas, using a stencil brush. As usual, I painted Bree’s eyes early on, interpreting from the second photo. I applied foundation colors for her black and white coat, using a lot of blue tones in the shadows, with some purple, magenta, grey and light brown tones also. By studying the reference photo in Photoshop, I was able to pull out more details, and thus added lots of texture in areas of curly and straight fur. I sent Jenny a copy of the work in progress and she said it was so beautiful it made her cry. “She will love it,” she said, “It definitely captures Bree’s essence.” Yahoo, I was on the right track!
The soft areas of green and yellow gave nice contrast to the colors elsewhere. Plants in the left foreground were important to balance Bree on the right, but I didn’t want the growth to steal attention from the dog. I kept the colors neutral, with bits of white highlights, and kept details to a minimum. In the end, I spattered some of the same colors over the bottom left quadrant of the painting.
When Jenny reviewed the painting in its final stage, she said “So perfect! I love it because she looks like she’s in heaven. She will treasure it, Judy.” Jenny couldn’t have made me happier, and her words helped me with a perfect painting title, “Bree In Heaven.” My portraits of my own dogs who have died, as well as those I have done for others, bring happiness and wonderful memories of their unconditional love. I hope this painting of her beloved Bree will help Lindsey fill some of the void in her heart.
