This is my latest painting. It is a commission piece I call A Pack of Posing Pups (and Their Plushie Platypus). It is painted in water soluble oil paints on a 24"x22"canvas.
The title is a little misleading because the pups did not actually pose for me. The client asked me to do a painting of her 6 dogs which she wanted to give to her husband as an anniversary present. She then provided me with about 20 family photos of her dogs from which I chose the best of each. I then arranged them into this composition.
The original sketch is 10"x8". I used a grid to transfer and enlarge it onto the canvas. I’ve drawn a small grid of 1" squares onto a sheet of vellum which fits the pages of my 8"X10" sketch book. Then I draw a larger, proportional grid onto the canvas. Finally I redraw each square in the sketch onto the corresponding square of the canvas. Some may find this process time consuming but I like to do it this way as it allows me to re-think, revise and refine my drawing as I go. I then erase the grid lines before I begin the painting.
I painted each dog from left to right, completing each in order. I chose to take a very minimalistic and impressionistic approach to the background, using only a few, very broad strokes of color to imply grass, a blue sky and a vague structure (possibly a fence or patio railing). I did this because there are already 6 subjects in this composition. I did not want to add to the visual complexity of the painting with a background that would compete for the viewer’s attention.
