Watercolour tutorial - Dachshund portrait

 Watercolour portrait of Standard Longhaired Dachshund

Ch & Aust Ch Tekalhaus Masterpiece

In this brief tutorial I will aim to show you my watercolour painting process resulting in a portrait such as the one above.

I'm afraid that I don't have any WIP photos of the head being painted, but as the procedure is the same as the body I don't think this is a problem. You can see here that the basic colours and tones are being laid in and no paint is applied where the highlights will be eventually. I put the blue background in before I start painting the dog and don't worry unduly if it overlaps the outline of the dog a little. Blue - it's French Ultramarine - is reasonably easy to scrub out - not completely of course, but sufficient for my needs. If it were green that would be another matter! The paint at this stage is of a watery consistency.

In the painting above, you can see I have started to add the fine detail of the hair. If you look, you will also see where I have added more colour to the side near the front of the dog and also scrubbed out some colour. I have an old brush which I keep purely for scrubbing out - a horrible looking old thing but which does the job just right. I tend to keep it in water for days on end - poor old brush! When I paint the hairs, I splay out a round sable and use the paint reasonably dry but not too dry which would cause drag marks. I don't paint individual hairs as I prefer the more natural look obtained when several hairs are painted at the same time. 

In this painting, the final outcome is becoming very clear. You will see that not only do I reserve white or pale paper for the highlights but I also use white watercolour. Now many of you will know that using white or black paint in watercolour is very frowned upon and for many years I used neither. I don't know exactly why but one day I became irritated at following 'the rules' and decided to go my own way. Now I use both white and black watercolours. However, I use them very, very carefully. If you want to deaden a painting there is hardly a quicker way than using white and black indiscriminately. I never mix white with any other colour as I loathe the chalky, lifeless quality it gives. As you can see above, I have used white on the hightlights of the dog - however, as the paper was already much lighter in these areas, only a small amount was needed and laid in very lightly. I will sometimes use a colour over white paint but very, very carefully so as to not disturb the white underneath as I don't want it to mix with the colour above. If it does, then I remove the lot with my faithful scrubbing brush. When I use black I sometimes use it neat but often mix a little blue or brown into it. Perhaps I should also mention the grass. This is painted starting with the lightest colours gradually working in the darks with very little scrubbing out as greens don't like it! 

I always paint on Saunders Waterford NOT as I like the level of absorbency this paper has. It is also good natured and will allow judicious scrubbing out although all watercolour paper needs respectful handling. I only use sable round brushes except for the sky where I use a 1" flat which is a mixture of sable and man-made. My faithful scrubbing brush is also a mixture of sable and man-made.

The colours used in this painting were: French Ultramarine, Lamp Black, Raw Sienna, Burnt Sienna, Raw Umber, Yellow Ochre (very little as it tends to be chalky-looking), Lemon Yellow (this together with Lamp Black give a rather nice olive green), Sap Green. To the best of my recollection these were the only colours with possibly the addition of a green which I've had in my box for so many years, I don't know what colour it is - I only use a tiny bit.

I do hope this little 'tuition' has been helpful to any aspiring artists out there. 

Anne

Dalmatian #2 (finished) Tutorial - Lesson 4

Step by step oil painting instructions - lesson 4

So here is the painting now finished. I've also featured the head of this girl to show it in detail. Since the last blog post, all the spots have been completed and more work has been done on the shading of the body. This is the stage when small areas of detail are added - such as the toe nails. In this painting, the paint has been thinned on two occasions only - firstly for the underpainting sketch and then for the whiskers. Finally the background has been painted, my signature added and that's it!

I hope you've enjoyed the little journey through the development of one of my paintings.

If you have any comments, please email me at info@azpaintings.com

Anne

Dalmatian #2 Tutorial - Lesson 3

Step by step oil painting instructions - lesson 3

As can be seen, things have moved on quite a lot since I last showed you the progress of this painting. The head and ears have almost been completed although there will be some more detail added. The entire body has been worked on with the shading being refined and all the spots have had thick paint applied but only fairly roughly. The spots above the collar and a few below have had detail added so the next stage of the painting will be to add detail to all of the spots on the body and legs. It will then be back to her head and together with the detail mentioned above, whiskers will also be painted in. Once all of this has been done, I will paint the background and then sign it. It will then be ready for her owner to check that she is happy with the painting.

Anne

If you have any questions, please email me at info@azpaintings.com

Dalmatian #2 Tutorial - Lesson 2

Step by step oil painting instructions - lesson 2

A considerable amount of work has been done since the last stage of this painting. All of the shading has been roughed in together with the spots on the head and ears and more work has been done on the eyes. Please note though that not one area of the dog is finished yet. I should also admit that I don't always paint in an ordered and sensible fashion and quite often get attracted by a particular area of the painting or take a rest from a difficult part! I am sure this is not the accepted way to paint, but since I am self-taught, I can please myself! 

If you'd like to ask any questions, please email me at info@azpaintings.com

Anne

Dalmatian #2 Tutorial - Lesson 1

Step by step oil painting instructions - lesson 1

I think the photo of this stage of the painting is fairly self-explanatory. As can be seen, once again I have painted the eyes first so that I can develop a relationship with the dog. After that I have blocked in shaded areas and the spots with thin paint. In this painting I have also added a foot which was not visible in the reference photo but without which I felt the painting looked wrong. 

At this point, I like to step away from the painting and look at it to make sure that it is developing along the right lines. Even when only in the beginning stages I aim to make the paintings visually interesting.

If you have any questions, please email me at info@azpaintings.com

Anne

Dalmatian oil painting tutorial - lesson 4

 Step by step oil painting instructions - lesson 4

So, here is the final painting. I hope it's going to be clear enough to see easily as I've found it incredibly hard to get a reasonable photo of it. 

I think a lot of this lesson really is self-explanatory. As can be seen, the black background has been painted in and the black edges of the ears have been slightly lightened so that they can be seen against the background - albeit not very well in this photo! Sometimes it can be very effective to paint 'lost and found' edges where parts of a painting are indistinguishable against the background but I didn't feel this would be right with this painting. More detail was added to the muzzle area and whiskers were painted in. The bed was painted but less than in the actual photo and toes were added which weren't in the photo! The final part of all was the blending in of the reflection with brush strokes both horizontal and vertical. Although the reflection is an important part of the painting it must not take centre stage - this position must be left to the VIP of the painting. 

Good girl Macy!

I hope you've enjoyed this journey into painting - another one to follow very shortly.

If you have any questions, please email me at info@azpaintings.com

Anne

Dalmatian oil painting tutorial - lesson 3

 Step by step oil painting instructions - lesson 3

At this stage the painting of the Dalmatian itself is almost finished. More detail has been added to the spots and the shading. The reflection has been added although this will need blurring into the background when that has been completed. 

It's always a good idea to look at your painting from slightly different angles and stand back to see it from a little further away. It's so easy when you're concentrating hard on the details of a painting to lose sight of the whole picture and for exaggerations to creep in. When you look at your painting, do you feel you could stroke the dog, feel its body under your hands? If you do, then you know you're getting it right. 

Any questions - just drop me a line at info@azpaintings.com

Anne

Dalmatian oil painting tutorial - lesson 2

Step by step oil painting instructions - lesson 2

As can be seen, the painting has developed considerably since the last lesson. The spots have all had oil paint applied without the addition of any thinner or medium. At the moment the edges are only roughly painted although the shapes are more or less accurate. The areas in shadow have had considerably more paint applied and again, like the spots, the paint has had nothing mixed with it. A large amount of detail has been added creating much more form. I've also added much more detail to the eye rims but haven't touched the eyes themselves as I got the expression I wanted when I first painted them and don't want this changed until I'm ready to work in the final detail - quite a time consuming part as getting the eye detail right is crucial. 

When you get to this stage, take time to look at the painting to make sure that your image is really starting to gain shape so that you feel you can reach out and touch the dog. If you don't feel that yourself,  you'll be lucky if anybody else does! If you're not sure, try looking at it through a mirror as when you're not used to painting, it can be useful to have a different perspective. For now, I feel very fond of this little girl and look forward to the next stage of work.

Again, if anyone has any questions, please email me at info@azpaintings.com or leave a comment here.

Anne

Dalmatian oil painting tutorial

Step by step oil painting instructions

I've been asked so many times to give painting tuition in my way of painting that I have decided to do my best and show the progress of a painting and describe the steps along the way. If anyone has any questions, please either email them to me at info@azpaintings.com or leave a comment here. 

The painting I will be showing you is on a 16" x 12" box canvas and is going to be a 'reflection' painting. 

As usual I like to paint the eyes first, even though only roughly, but this aspect of the painting is extremely important to me. Once I have the eyes painted I can relax and start to build up the rest of the body. I like to get the shading of the body painted next as it starts then to form the flat image into something with form and life. I start by blocking in a thin layer of paint in the areas of shadow and also all the spots. I don't worry at this stage about making sure the spots are all the same depth of colour but I do try and get the different tones of shading more or less correct although not at their final depth. At this stage I only use Ivory Black and Titanium White. This is a very important step in the painting and if it lacks interest now, the final painting is also likely to be boring. If the painting was of a different coloured animal I would use a complementary but still neutral colour for the shadow. 

I hope you've enjoyed this first lesson in painting my way and will join me for the next stage which will follow soon.

Anne

German Shorthaired Pointer - Coco

German Shorthaired Pointer - Coco - 20" x 16" watercolour on Saunders Waterford paper

Here is the finished portrait of Coco. Following on from the last stage shown in my previous post, I next worked on her eyes again until they were almost as shown here. I could then get down to all the detailed work on the rest of her. As I've mentioned previously, I don't paint individual hairs with a fine brush as I prefer what I feel is a more natural look, achieved by splaying out a round sable brush. This is a technique which does require a fair bit of practice and will also involve careful lifting of colour in certain areas and blending in others. My aim is to paint a realistic portrait which doesn't look like a photo but looks more than a photo - I want - well what do I want? I want to make the dog live!

I am pleased to tell you that Coco is alive and well and a very loved family member. Her mum burst into tears when she saw the painting - and I can assure you it wasn't from disappointment! Apparently the painting is now hanging on the wall for all to admire :)

To commission a painting please email me at info@azpaintings.com or visit my commissions pages.

Coco - German Shorthaired Pointer (work in progress)

Coco - 20" x 16" watercolour on Saunders Waterford paper (WIP)

This is my latest commission which I have just recently finished. Here I am showing the first completed stage. The drawing has been done and the background wash has been laid down - as usual a watery mixture onto stretched, dry paper. I paint with the board at a slight angle so the paint, when watery, will run down. I start with a darker mixture at the very top of the paper (in fact this part will eventually be covered with a mount) and gradually add more and more clear water to the brush so that the mixture becomes lighter as it nears the dog's head. Once past the ears, I add the more of the water/paint mixture to the very edges, to bring more colour into the painting and then add a strip of darker paint at the bottom. I then quickly add more clear water so that the background mixes in with the bottom of the dog's neck. I hope that makes sense. All this is done as quickly as I possibly can and as I said in a previous post, I can't stop for anything when laying in this wash as otherwise it would leave ugly hard edges wherever the paint was allowed to dry. 

As is usual, I painted Coco's eyes in first so that we could develop a 'relationship' and then her nose. The rest of her head, neck and ears followed gradually and what you see here is in fact not one layer of paint, but already several laid into each other. You'll notice some hard edges on her forehead and a few other places. As the painting progressed I eventually softened these by scrubbing at the area with an old half inch square edged brush and clear water. I have had this particular 'scrubbing' brush for ages now and hope it lasts for ever as I know it would take ages to break a new one in. I'll try and remember to take a photograph of it one day and show you. I will post the finished painting tomorrow.

Happy Birthday Jules!! (Coco's mum)

To commission a painting please email me at info@azpaintings.com

Dalmatian Watercolour (work in progress)

Dalmatian Ch Dvojica Voulez Vous (Frida) - work in progress

20" x 16" watercolour on Saunders Waterford 100% cotton rag paper

I thought it might be of interest to show the completed first stage of a watercolour painting. At this point in the procedure, I have painted in the background wash. This wash is made from a mixture of lamp black, burnt sienna and a dash of raw umber and is a very watery mixture. I don't dampen my paper first but lay this wash in as quickly as I possibly can with a 1" wide flat brush. If the phone rings or someone comes to the door when I am doing this part of the painting, I don't answer. I simply can't stop during the laying in of the wash or it will dry leaving horrid hard edges and would need to be thrown away. I don't paint over the dog's head although I don't worry if I overlap a little here and there but I make sure to touch every part of the outline or there would be a noticeable white gap which can't be filled in without it noticing.

As this wash is laid onto dry paper, it doesn't take very long to dry so there's just time for a short coffee break usually! The next area to be worked on is the eyes as I very much dislike looking at a 'dead' dog while I paint. So, for the eyes, I do enough work to enable the dog to look back at me. I usually then paint the nose in but with less detail than the eyes. After these two important areas are finished, I then start to lay in washes of tone and this is the same whether the dog is long or short coated. As these toned areas start to develop it is possible to 'feel' the shape of the dog and model it - in my head I imagine touching that part of the dog which helps to ensure accuracy. As this painting is of a Dalmatian, the spots come next. In fact some of the spots here are a little darker than I prefer and I did lift a little of the colour with clear water before putting in the detail. Although in the final painting it will barely notice, it will just add a touch of depth to the painting.

I will show the completed painting tomorrow with more details about it's creation.

If you have any questions, or would like to commission a painting please either visit the commissions page of my website, or email me at info@azpaintings.com

Dalmatian Head Study

Ch Camargue Gucci Envy (Lola) - 16" x 20" watercolour on Saunders Waterford watercolour paper

As many of you will know, I was busy before Christmas completing commissions which were to be given as Christmas presents and couldn't therefore be shared with you. The first of these paintings, a head study of a Dalmatian, which I am now showing you, was actually planned as a birthday present to be given in February, but when it arrived shortly after Christmas, her owner couldn't resist giving the painting to his wife - and so now has to find another present for her!

I actually managed to take a work in progress photo of this painting and here it is:

As you can see, I have painted all the spots in and started adding colour to her eyes and some shadings on the head and neck. The shaded areas are made in a couple of different ways; one method is to drop colour into pools of clear water previously painted on the surface, and the other is to paint using a very watery colour and then soften the edges with clear water. If you leave hard edges they can be the very devil to get rid of - so I don't leave them! I think you can just see that I have also put in a few strokes to indicate the lay of the coat and if you look at the spots you will see that their edges also indicate which way the fur is lying. I like to get the eyes of the dog painted as soon as possible in any of my paintings, as I totally detest looking at them without eyes as they seem 'dead' and I want them alive as soon as I can manage it!

If you have any questions, either about commissioning a painting or purchasing an original painting, print or card, please email me at info@azpaintings.com. Also if you have any art related questions, please email me and I will be happy to help. I will do this in confidence if you prefer or if you'd like to share your journey with other readers, that could be fun - so let me know.

Lastly but not least...

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!

Cocker Spaniel painting

Sh Ch Lujesa Happy Too - 20" x 16" watercolour

Yes, another Cocker Spaniel (okay for my American friends, English Cocker Spaniel). This painting was a gift and so I could not show it at the time it was painted. These dogs have such sweet and appealing faces it's hard to remember sometimes that they are energetic and talented gundogs. Over the years, I have met very many of these dogs and have found them to be as affectionate as their sweet faces would imply! If you are an artist contemplating painting one of this breed, I can only say to make sure you get their meltingly sweet expressions just right!

I hope you enjoy viewing this painting as much as I enjoyed painting it. If you would like to commission a painting of your pet, please email me at info@azpaintings.com

Miniature Smooth Dachshund - Tim (work in progress)

Photo 1 of WIP

As promised, I have made the effort to take some photographs of my painting process during my latest commission. I'm just trying to make up my mind whether to include them all in one post or do a few! I think I will post all of the WIP's - there are 3 of them - in one post and then the final painting in its own one. I hope this will be acceptable.

In the above painting, I have drawn the outline and some important features of the dog, painted in the wash blue background and started laying in the base washes on Tim himself. I hope you can already see that in some places there are several layers of wash. I think this is a place where new watercolour artists often have some problems, in that they either make their washes too wet and disturb the colour underneath with a resultant mud effect or put the watercolours on with too little water, making them look harsh and unrealistic. I would say obviously practice is required and also a lightness of hand/brush.  

Photo 2 of WIP

In this photo you can see even more layers added and I should have mentioned in the previous photograph, that there is just the tiniest hint of grass in the background. I suppose one other point which is relevant as far as I am concerned, is that I have painted in Tim's eye with a fair amount of detail even at this early stage. I like to do this with 'my' dogs as I feel then that I have a relationship with them - I imagine that sounds a little crazy, but that's me!!

Photo 3 of WIP

This photo shows  the layering in of brush strokes to form the hairs. As I've mentioned previously, I don't paint the hairs invididually as I'm not very fond of the effect. Instead I splay out the hairs on my brushes (not very good for them by the way) so that I paint several hairs at one time. I also go over many areas with a brush very, very slightly dampened with clear water to blend in some of the hairs. This is a difficult operation to complete successfully as I am trying to get the watercolours to lose a little of their colour and run slightly but so slightly that it is barely visible. Yes, sometimes it goes wrong and needs gently lifting and repainting.

This is the last of the WIP's and the next post will be the final painting.

If you have any queries, please either leave a comment or email me at info@azpaintings.com and I'll be happy to help. 

Ditto by Anne Zoutsos

Ditto - 10" x 8" oil on hardboard/masonite

Well here is the finished painting. It's been a challenge but an enjoyable one!


10% donation to TBAR - True Blue Animal Rescue

SOLD

Ditto (3) - Work In Progress by Anne Zoutsos

Ditto- 10" x 8" oil on hardboard/masonite

A bit further on ....

Ditto (2) - Work In Progress by Anne Zoutsos

Ditto - 10" x 8" oil on hardboard/masonite

Well, here is Ditto again a little further on. I have done a lot more work on the dog and she is coming together nicely. You can now see how much work there is in the chair - I must admit not one of my favourite types of subject. Still, it will be an interesting challenge and I am actually quite looking forward to getting into it properly to watch it grow!

As I said in my previous post, once finished and sold a donation of 10% is being made to TBAR.

If you go to their website you will see they are in even more desperate need than usual (and they always need funds) owing to the rescue of 57 horses. I wonder if you will be as astonished as I was to read that although these horses have been removed from their previous owner's care that no charges have been filed. I wonder what you have to do to an animal to be charged with neglect and cruelty?
ADDENDUM - someone very kindly emailed me to let me know that the owner has now been charged and is at present in jail.

If you're not wanting to purchase a painting, please visit TBAR and think about making a donation - without donations nothing can be done to help these animals.

Ditto - Work In Progress

Ditto - 10" x 8" oil on hardboard/masonite

This painting is based on a reference photograph again sent by Anne Stark of the Pipers whippets and dachshunds. The dog is a Parson Terrier and is a champion (USA) and is owned by Anne Stark's sister. As a breed, they are very game little dogs always ready for play or a hunt, loving an outdoor life but equally happy living the life of a cherished pet in the home as can be seen here - or will be seen when I have finished the chair!

Colour/color prejudice in watercolours

Well back after a long break - not on holiday unfortunately!

Today I want to talk a little bit about colour prejudice in watercolour painting and, like colour prejudice in the human population, it concerns the colours black and white. However, here the similarity ends thank goodness!

Traditional watercolour purists would never use black or white in their paintings, asserting that black is a 'dead' colour and that white in a watercolour should only be achieved by leaving virgin areas of paper.

When I started painting in the long distant past, being a very law-abiding person, I used to follow this rule and it frequenly made my life very difficult indeed. How do you have white whiskers on a dog for instance if you don't paint them in? Well, when I didn't use white, I basically had two options. One was to simply scratch the paint away with a sharp blade but although I tried many, many times, I never became very proficient at this and instead of nice clean, sharp lines, I used to end up with somewhat 'bobbly' lines. The other technique is to cover the paper you wish to reserve with masking fluid. Masking fluid is a whitish liquid which dries to a rubbery consistency which you can then peel off from your paper. If you decide to have a try with masking fluid, use a pen and not a brush as I did at first - you will never get the dried fluid off your brush. If you want to cover a larger area and have to use a brush, use an old one as you will need to throw it away afterwards. Speaking personally though, like the scratching technique, I never enjoyed using masking fluid.

In my own work, I use watercolour paint in many layers. This in itself would be frowned upon by purists. The fact that I use black and white would just confirm their worst opinion!

However, I must make a couple of, I believe, very important points. Firstly I never mix white with any other colour. I have a real distaste for something which is actually quite widespread in watercolour paintings, and that is 'chalkiness'. I find that this chalkiness completely deadens the painting and removes the light and life from it. I mostly use white where it is the final colour i.e. whiskers or hairs overlapping a coloured part of an animal's coat or the lighest part of a white section. Occasionally I will use it as a 'basecoat' in a small part of the painting. By this I mean that I will paint a very small area white, wait for it to dry completely and then very carefully and lightly, apply a dryish thin coat of colour over the white, thus allowing the white to shine through. If I make a mistake and apply the colour a little too wet or not quite lightly enough and it starts to mix with the white below, I will immediately add more water to dissolve the paint and mop it up - I really, really do hate chalky paintings! Unfortunately this technique is very time-consuming which is why I believe so few artists use it.

As for black I usually use lamp black and add just a little of another colour to enrich it - perhaps a touch of French ultramarine or burnt sienna. I recently bought some mars black but am being very careful about how I use it and in fact will only use it for backgrounds as I like the way it granulates. I dislike it in the body of the painting however as it is a dead, flat colour and despite being black has that 'chalkiness' about it that I don't want in my paintings.

I've included a painting of a border collie today - a black and white dog. This painting contains very little white paint indeed - just the whiskers and where some of the white hairs overlap the black. All the shine in the coat is the paper shining through the paint. Although, as I say, I use many layers of paint, I am careful in certain areas, to make these layers very thin and transparent so that the finished painting will be lively and fresh. The black has been moderated with touches of blue and brown.

So although I am not colour prejudiced in my paintings and will use both black and white, I use them with care.