Oil painting of a miniature dachshund and a Work In Progress

10" x 14" oil on linen canvas 

I thought this evening I'd post a painting and a work in progress of it for those interested to see a little of the process involved in creating an oil painting, or I should say, my way of creating an oil painting! I'm really not sure - is it possible to have a more appealing expression than this little dog has? I don't think so! I hope you enjoy the painting!

Anne

info@azpaintings.com

Watercolour Dalmatian portrait (Peanut)

16" x 20" watercolour on Saunders Waterford NOT

Well I hope everyone reading this had a wonderful Christmas and a happy New Year and in fact is still having a good new year! I started 2016 with a sickly computer and a sickly me. Neither of us was seriously ill but it did make posting too difficult to struggle with. However, we are now both back and fully fit!

I'm hoping to get back to posting regularly now and if you have any comments or there is anything you'd like to see or have discussed,  please let me know.

As I say under the painting, this lovely Dalmatian was painted on Saunders Waterford NOT. For those of you new to this blog and not familiar with watercolour papers, you might wonder what NOT stands for. It actually means NOT hot pressed. Hot pressed watercolour paper is very smooth as opposed to rough watercolour paper which is.... yes, you guessed it, rough. NOT fits in between the two. I use Saunders Waterford as I find it a forgiving paper, meaning that it is possible to be relatively rough with it. I always suggest to people new to watercolours, that they pop along to their local art shop and buy a selection of different papers to see which they like best and which suits their style of painting best. I find Saunders Waterford paper to be like Baby Bear's porridge in Goldilocks and The Three Bears, that is, just right! 

Anne

Standard Long Haired Dachshund

20" x 16" watercolour - Aus Ch Laurieton His Masters Voice

Today's post is of a very handsome standard long haired dachshund. Not only a gorgeous looking dog but also one in stunning condition and looking so healthy. A real pleasure to paint! For those who are wondering what Aus Ch means, it is Australian Champion.

At the moment I'm wondering whether I should migrate this blog over to Wordpress and wonder if anyone has any views on this? I'm also unhappy with Feedblitz which sends this post by email to subscribers. I'm unhappy with it because of all the advertising plastered over the email but I'm not sure if there is a good alternative. I suppose I should research more but there are only so many hours in the day and at the moment most of them are taken up with painting. Talking of which, I must get back to it now!

Thanks for looking!

Anne

info@azpaintings.com

Longhaired Dachshund portrait

Longhaired Dachshund - Oil on canvas 16" x 12"

As I explained on my Facebook page (Anne Zoutsos Artist), I'm still trying to catch up with posting my paintings. The one featured today was a pre-Christmas commission so at this rate I'll still be posting last year's Christmas portraits just before this Christmas! Oh well, painting's more important than posting - or it is to me although I suppose it's not the way to be when social networking is so important these days. Whoops!

Anne

Dalmatian Zoe - oil painting

Zoe - 10" x 8" oil painting

I've been making a Dalmatian album on Facebook and so thought I'd put some of them here for you all to see! 

If you would like to commission a painting please click on the commissions link above or email me at info@azpaintings.com

Saluki watercolour commission

16" x 20" watercolour saluki on Saunders Waterford paper

I thought readers might like to see a WIP of this painting, so I am showing it below.

I hope you find it interesting!

Anne

Cocker Spaniel - wip#2

Watercolour Cocker Spaniel Commission - Work In Progress #2

Here is the painting quite a bit further on. You can see that a lot of detail has been added to the body and head of the dog although the legs still need a lot of work and of coure it does need more work all over. I'm not sure how easy you'll be able to see that the sky has already been painted, but it has - it was the very first thing painted in. The grass will be the last area painted.

While I'm mentioning the sky, I'd like to stress the importance of taking it right up to the edge of the drawing and even overlap a little as there is nothing worse (well there is of course!) than seeing a blank area of white against the outline of the dog. If you try and fill it in it will usually dry with hard edges and look glaringly obvious. With detailed watercolours, you do need to have to think ahead more than is necessary in oils.

I will post the finished painting soon, although I can't promise it will be tomorrow - time will tell!

Cocker Spaniel - watercolour work in progress

Cocker Spaniel Commission - watercolour work in progress

I've just spent some time searching my blog as I couldn't believe I hadn't posted for so long! Well, it seems that is accurate and so I'd better pull my socks up and get posting more regularly.

Today's painting is pretty much self-explanatory and as can be seen is the beginning stages of a watercolour cocker spaniel. Still lots to do of course but the basics are all there.

The next work in progress will follow shortly.... (hopefully tomorrow)