I decided to do this painting after a long period of being "uninspired." My 2nd Cuzin Catherine was getting married and she and her fiance Mike had had some beautiful engagement photos done, including their precious pup and Mike's truck. The initial photo that inspired me was this one of the truck. It seemed very structural and fun to paint.
So then... I decided it needed some bodily warmth, and more personalization, so I decided to add Miss Abita from this photo. I didn't want to take on doing the humans, because it's not really easy for me. yikes!
So I began of course with an acrylic underpainting which I did not take a photo of, but I used a lot of gold paint in it, hoping it would add to the "antique-ness" of the completed painting. With the flecks of gold shining through later. This next photo is taken after day one of painting. You can see where I sketched out the dog within the paint itself, just for reference. I used a lot of blue for the dark areas to try and avoid black.
As it moved along in progress, I went in and added Abita, I was pretty pleased with how she turned out, given this was the first warm blooded animal I'd ever painted. LOL Catherine said I captured her stance perfectly. :)
After getting the pup out of the way I started adding some more details and editing the colors a bit. By the way, this is a 16 x 20 painting on gallery wrapped canvas.
After painting session #3 I decided it was complete, I did add a little piece of lace underneath the paint in the bottom left corner, just to stick with my usual lace addition. Though you can't really see it, I still know it's there, and adds to the effect as well. ;) This is the only photo I got of it completed because I was camera-less and had to use my dumb phone. So the colors aren't good....
Catheine took this photo below of it hanging in her house, she says the light shines in th window and shows off the gold underpaint. YAY!
