Sunday, August 25, 2013

The start of a new dog portrait revealed

 At the clients' request, I have not been able to share the progress or final portrait of two of my recently completed commissions. We would not want to ruin the surprise now, would we?  In due time, I will share with you those two paintings I have to keep secret for now.

In the meantime, I am able to share the current painting on the easel. I am facing a rather tough challenge.
 To put things in perspective, the reference image of the subject measures  6" x 3.2" and along with several other not-so-good shots, is to be used to create a large 18"x24" head/shoulder portrait.
  Unfortunately, the pet has passed away and the owner has only poor quality photos to hand me. In this case, I will have to dig into my extensive library of dog images to help me with the details of this Golden Retriever's portrait as well as rely on the client's feedback with the help of work-in-progress updates.

golden retriever photo reference for painting
original photo
 
golden retriever mock up for painting
mock up image of portrait using photo above

golden retriever portrait painting work in progress by Colette Theriault
work in progress of Golden Retriever painting
 

3 comments:

  1. I'm sure you'll produce a wonderful portrait Colette (as always). I hope the owner appreciates how hard it is to work this way

    I got tough last year and stopped accepting commissions from poor refs. I truly sympathise with owners who don't have good pictures of their deceased pets but I just hated having to 'make up' missing features (or work much 'looser' than normal) and found myself getting unnecessarily stressed. No matter how pleased the owner was with the finished portrait I could never be happy with them .. but at the end of the day its the client's happiness that counts!











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  2. I have missed you, Colette!!! This is coming along beautifully..
    not easy unless you have a clear reference picture. But I know you'll ace this one.. looking forward to your next post.

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  3. Thank you kindly Sue and Hilda! I appreciate your kind and sweet comments!

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