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MEDIUM: Scratchbord™
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SIZE: 10" x 8"
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STATUS: Currently in the gallery of Ampersand Arts headquarters in Buda, TX
"As an 'Ampersand Ambassador,' representing, promoting, and using the fine products of Ampersand Arts for my scratchboard artwork, I was invited to create a painting of the company founder's cute dog Javi. The company planned a display in their gallery to showcase their unique FloaterFrames and wanted participating artists to all work from the same reference photo of Javi on various art surfaces made by the company. See my second Javi portrait submitted to this exhibit, done on a canvas panel with acrylics.
I chose black Scratchbord for Javi's first portrait and decided to do the art in the purest way, without adding any color. Pet portraits are one of my favorite subjects. I really wanted to shine, considering my audience would be the company founder and CEO, and I wanted my scratchboard art to be worthy of presentation in the Ampersand Arts gallery.
I focused on a horizontal head shot, removing the background from the original reference photo and creating a night sky in its place. Since every painting in the exhibit would be featuring Javi, I decided titling my artwork "The Star" would be appropriate. I wanted to play with that title a bit more, and subtly included the celestial constellation Canis Major in the sky area, adding twinkle effects to the stars which define the dog shape and making "Sirius", aka The Dog Star, as the brightest star."
