“Hanna the Hound” Portrait

The Supplies

Dave will be painting Hanna’s picture on his preferred size of 16” x 20”, using heavy cotton duck, which as a consideration is always really easy and affordable to frame, there being a huge range of ready-made fames in this size.

“You see the little wooden wedges on the right side? Well, while I was upstairs composing these immortal words on our laptop, Gus (our second hound) decided he would eat three of them! The little blighter! (Didn’t really “eat” them though. I guess I could use some more toothpicks in the house!”

Sketching out Hanna the Hound

The Sketch is Completed

Burnt Sienna Process

One of the highlights of having Hanna’s Portrait done is not only the daily photos showing the progress or the anticipation of receiving the finished portrait to hang proudly in my Basset Hall of Fame Room (the Office) but the highly detailed information that Dave carefully provides on each step of the process..

“I prefer not to paint on a “white” canvas. (Despite the appearance of the pencil study above, the canvas is white. I adjusted the contrast so that the drawing would show up better.) Using an inky solution of turpentine and burnt sienna, I came up with a nice warm tone. Slap it on all over, even your strokes, and then, with the judicious application of a cosmetic sponge (they’re the greatest things; a sponge that’s wedge shaped; there’s sharp points and broad “brush-like” edges) I start to pick-up pigment, beginning to define/suggest the lighting.”
David Dowbyhuz

Original Photo

“What I’ve done here is applied the under-painting of the back of the couch; basically mid-tones only. The uneven, uncertain look of things right now is deliberate. There are elements I’ve painted in that will virtually disappear into the darkening glaze I will apply increasingly from the left to the right. I do this, rather then taking the short-cut of applying uniform dark, so that even the dark areas will contain a subliminal interest as well. The tone will also be harmonized with the self-same “amber glaze” I mentioned earlier. If you allow enough range of color throughout your canvas, a harmonizing glaze across all, as a final step, can be really effective, without harming any of your original layers. I love the effect, but that will come later.
Tomorrow, the arm of the couch, and the cushions.”.

“I got an early start today. Did as much as I can of the couch, and I’ll also have time to start the pencil study of my next hound.

Here you can see today’s minimal development.
More primitive, unresolved under painting. This stage always tries my patience, because I know how it will end up looking, and this ain’t it. All this turmoil must be left to dry, and then I can start glazing in shadow, and creating dimension & depth (the two big “D’s” for us realists) by applying light. That’s where the fun is. This stage in just housekeeping”.

“OK, enough with the couch already. I can tell I’m done by the fact that I refuse to do anymore.

I’ve added three more glaze layers, and unfortunately, very little shows up on the screen. Now if you were here, you’d be far more impressed. (Seriously, though. All of the subtleties are lost when reduced to this size. There is actually quite a lot going on here, and the differences between this post and my last (believe it or not) is significant. Guess you’ll have to take me word for it.)

I’ve scheduled the dry-time just right. I’ll be ready to paint in Hanna on the weekend.”

Only took the time tonight to finish her ear (almost ran out of paint! ), her chest, and one big, fat foot!

Another day of “work” as planned. As promised, I’ve covered the canvas. You finally start to get a sense of completion at this point, even though there are quite a lot of value corrections to be addressed with glazes. For example, virtually all of her “white”, from her ears back, is wrong.

The Completed Portriat of Hanna the Hound

The lovely Hanna is complete, but for the signing.
I spent the weekend glazing. Whereas the changes may not appear dramatic from the photos,
there is a lot more depth, light and
dimension in the work now.

Close up of Hanna

Thanks very much to David for letting us add this nice tutorial to our site. You can see more of his work on his sit. http://www.daviddowbyhuz.com/