Rory - Beagle portrait demo

This is a portrait or Rory, Zoe's sister.
For the colors I used, please have a look at Zoe's post.

Tod in the woods - Beagle portrait demo

Here is another beagle portrait I was asked to paint. It was done on a quart sheet of Arches 300 grs.

Here is the start, cad red, UMB, "black", yellow ochre, raw umber, lemon yellow.

Slowly building up shadows and light. Started working on the eyes with sepia and burnt sienna.

Trying to achieve depth of color and facial expression.

Now it's time for the background. I did not like the one in the photo, so I decided that placing a blurred forest would do the trick. Used lemon yellow and indian yellow, viridian, and the same colors used in the fur.

adding more color and spattering for the foliage. Used sap green, viridian and neutral tint.

And here it is, finished!

Zoe- Beagle portrait demo

This is a portrait I painted for one of my friend's 2 beagles, her name is Zoe

I started with the dog, using yellow ochre and raw umber, plus a mix of viridian and purple magenta to get the black for the nose and part of the fur.

added some burnt sienna and translucent orange to the fur and burnt sienna and sepia for the eye. I'm working dry on dry softening some of the edges with water.

Started to do the background with cad yellow and sap green and some viridian, wetting the area first.

Always wet on wet, I painted the first layer of the distant foliage, using lemon yellow, some translucent orange and indian yellow.

I let the first wash dry, rewetted the surface and added neutral tint, sap green and viridian to give the impression of distant trees and bushes.

And this is the finished painting. I did some fine tuning on the hair near the mouth and retouched the metal stuff with some white gouache. Done!

Buddy's first portrait

More to the joy I'm sharing with my furry friend, I also got an irresistible will to paint again.
So here is the portrait I painted yesterday.

here is the first wash, I used UMB, permanent rose, translucent orange, indian yellow, yellow ochre, Van Dyke brown and burnt sienna

Used the same colors and mixed up some black for the nose using viridian green plus permanent rose

Using the same colors in the next layers, added sepia for the "eyeliner"

Here is Buddy inspecting his portrait..... :D

And here the finished work!

Buddy fun

I've been quite busy with Buddy last week, it's like having a baby, he takes most of my time and I'm happy.
He's really a cutie pie, very sweet, but still wild and crazy when on the leash, and my walks with him are 10 times better than a fitness club... :)

Here are some pics

And a fun video..... :)

Buddy

At last, my search is over!!!!
Buddy, my furry pal, will arrive to my home next Saturday evening!!!!
He's in Rome at the moment, on a balcony where his owner never gives affection and just throws him his food leftovers since he was gifted him from his daughter 11 months ago.....

Now there's a turn in his life, and in mine........
I am pretty sure this will be a fantastic partnership, lots of love to share... <3

Here he is, he's a beagle. I don't know how "pure" he is, and I don't care. Saving a little life makes me feel proud and alive.
Welcome home, sweet Buddy!!!

These photos where taken by the volunteers who are going to bring me Buddy

Doggie update

Ok, so I found out that the doggie with blue eyes is a pitbull, not suitable for a person like me at her first dog experience.
So I browsed another site, saw the pic of a doggie I liked and wrote a presentation email to them asking if the doggie was still awailable for adoption.
No reply.
I called them this morning. The lady said she hadn't got any email, anyway that doggie had already requests, I told her that there was another doggie I could be interested in, and she replied to fill in the adoption form, which I did immediately. I also resent the email.
No answer.
I called again asking if there were problems and if I had to keep searching....and she replied: KEEP SEARCHING!!!!

Now, I'd like to know why........I'm quite mad at this.
You see all these heart tearing ads, you call because you wish to rescue a doggie from a dog shelter, you call and do all the stuff and they say keep searching.....ARE YOU KIDDING????

I am a good person and wish to have a dog, but it seems like I'm trying to adopt a baby.....this is a nonsense....how many poor dogs out there and not able to rescue one.......... :(

New doggie?

Lately my attention has been focused on the search of a dog to keep me company. I cannot think about anything else. I never had a dog in my life, been always a cat lover, but in this period of my life I feel the love of a dog is what I need.
My life has dramatically changed in the last 2 years, I lost my mom and my beloved cat Max in 6 months, had to move..........
Now I feel ready to have a companion, and I think this will be a turn in my life.
I went to the local dog pound, and there I fell in love with such a cute beagle, unfortunately she was already "booked" by another family. There weren't many dogs there, I think max 15, and all were quite old. Coming from the loss of my family, and being at my first experience with dogs, I'd like to get a puppy that I can fully enjoy.....

So I started searching websites that put up ads from different dog pounds all over the country, and I saw a doggie that was really adorable, but when I called....it had already been adopted...... :( great disappointment!!!
I didn't know it was so difficult to rescue a puppy!!!!

Then I came through this cutie......so adorable! <3

What hit my heart was that incredibly sad look and oh, the color of his eyes. I called immediately.....

Thanks God he is still available for adoption.

I filled in the adoption form and sent it back. Now I'm waiting for the next step, that should be someone from the dog pound coming and checking where I live,

I'm so impatient and I'm sure that when he finally comes home, I will paint more than one portrait of him.... <3

Will keep you up to date, and please send me your positive thoughts so that my dream can come true.....

What a great afternoon!!!!

Spring is blooming everywhere, so I felt like painting in the open today.

I just drew a couple of ovals for the flowers, then I started painting very freely.

The sun was warm, there was breeze, how could I not stay in the sun???

I wanted to do this because, due to the sun and breeze, paper was drying quite quickly, not giving me the time "to think".
I had lots of fun, did not think about the final result.

Here it is, fresh and joyful! :)

....Note to self: do this more often!

Sewing

Here's a little project I did to recycle a duvet cover I had done some years ago in patchwork.

Here it was, on my old bed that I had painted and decoupaged








As it was not easy to put the duvet inside it, I decided to find some other use for it.
The first thing I came pu with was a cover for my mom's sewing machine. It originally had a wooden cabinet where it could be stored with all the accessories, but when I had to sell her home, I did not have any space to keep the whole thing, so I got rid of the wooden part and actually store the sewing machine in my cabinet.

Here I am cutting the fabric. I used a piece of fleece I had laying around as backing

Doing some quilting....

My sewing machine, time to see if I did the measurements right..... :)

Luckily it seems I did!

The other side

And here a close-up of the quilting I did, very easy, but that's what I can do! :)

I did a hand sewn puffy edge with a jeans blue thick silk thread.

Et voila, done! :)