Painting a new Portrait of a Woman with her Dog
I am getting very excited to be painting a portrait of a woman with her beloved dog that has a landscape setting in the background. This 9x12" oil portrait will look amazing once all the landscape is painted in.
The face opens up without all that hair covering it as can be seen in the color block in stage of the painting.
As I work back and forth in different areas of the painting the whole work starts to come together more and more.
I always enjoy seeing the work evolve from a blurry mess into something recognizable. There is still more work to be done on this dog, like making the eyes look more lively, but that will take place in the next stage.
When confronted with a garden as lush as this one is, some major decisions have to be made as how to make it look painterly. Here I take a clue from John Singer Sargent and go for bold brush strokes to bring out items that I think make the painting look nice and washes to hide every bit of grass and weed or nondescript item. As the painting goes through its final stages some of these flowers will be more developed.
A quick peek at the overall look thus far. With every stage the painting will develop and take on a finished look. Below is a painting progression video that shows more images on how the work evolves.
More coming soon by PortraitsbyNC
