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. 

German Shepherd Dog commission in watercolour

Ch. Jasueter Silber Yacco - watercolour 20" x 16"

This is a commission I finished a few weeks ago and I thought you might like to see it; I would say a German Shepherd face and expression at its best - honest and true.  It is a watercolour painted on Saunders Waterford NOT paper - my favourite paper to use. My watercolour paints are Winsor and Newton as are my oils - quality paints in my opinion. I do feel that when you are painting it is foolish to use anything less than top quality materials. When you think of the enormous amount of hours it takes to create a painting such as this one, it seems crazy to use less than the best materials. It is the same with brushes. I never use anything other than sable brushes for my watercolours. I admit I have tried cheaper nylon mixes, but have never used them in an actual painting as I have found them useless - despite what all the advertisements would have you believe! 

I did take several photographs some while ago detailing the process of stretching watercolour paper as I know this poses a problem for quite a few people - nothing more irritating that having a lovely piece of watercolour paper buckling in all directions when a water wash is applied to it! I have filed the photos away somewhere and at the moment have no idea where! If there is a demand, I will hunt them out and show them here to try and help all you aspiring watercolourists! :)

Brushes On Watercolour - Wet On Wet

I had an interesting question the other day about watercolour paper and whether it is used wet or dry. Well, it is used both ways depending on what you are painting and the effect you want to make.

If you are going to paint a detailed painting, which needs to be accurate to scale (like mine) you will have to work on dry paper. The reason for this is that you will need to make your pencil drawing on your paper and as we all know - you can't draw with an ordinary lead pencil onto wet paper. A long time ago I did try drawing on my paper before soaking and stretching it. Unfortunately I discovered that when you do this, you also stretch your drawing and even when the paper has completely dried, the drawing is not absolutely as it was when you drew it. So for my purposes where accuracy is vital, it was useless. If however, 100% accuracy to scale is not needed, then you can certainly do this.

You may wonder why anyone would want to draw first, soak later. The reason for this, is that when you have a sheet of wet paper on your board (not completely, dripping wet but still soaked through) you can lay your paints onto the paper and get some wonderful effects. You will need to practice to see what I mean, but essentially the paint will mix in with the water held in the paper and spread out into wonderful shapes and patterns. When you then add another colour to the mix - oh lovely! Do be aware though, that where the paper is holding a lot of water, you will need to put reasonably strong colours on your brush.

If you need to let your paper dry so that you can put on an accurate drawing, you can however, wet areas of your paper with clean water (make sure it is clean!!) and then drop your colours into that area. No doubt you will find some frustrations. Quite often the paint will collect to the edges of its spread and when dry, creates and thickish hard line which most often you won't want. If you try and lift some of the paint when you see this happening, you will find to your dismay that quite often you get a 'floral' effect and most of the time you won't want this, although in a looser painting, it can be utilized to become a useful part of the design.

The picture at the top shows a small part from the background of one of my paintings (ignore the piece of dog neck) which shows granulation. Granulation occurs when some paints are mixed together - I usually make mine happen by adding ultramarine to my mix. I love the grainy effect it gives.

So to summarise - your paper can be worked dry, damp or wet. It will depend on your requirements and may well differ from painting to painting. Just keep going and don't give up if your efforts appear amateurish to begin with. Enjoy what you're doing. Don't make it an effort but look forward to it as an enjoyable discovery. Apart from learning to draw and paint, you will also begin to see differently. Yes, you will. Where once you would just look at an object, now you will start to really see it. You will notice it's shape, colour, the way the light falls on it. Yes, life will become more fun!

Talking of fun, did anyone notice the heading of this piece? If you take the initials it reads BOW-WOW - perfect for a dog obsessed person like me!