A little puppy
It’s been quite a busy week. I spent several days getting ready for a little show on Saturday and started work on a new pet commission. The show went fine. Anytime you exhibit your wares and come home with more money than you left with, it has to be considered a success. Also midweek, I got e-mails from two people wanting pet portraits. One quickly sent me a good photo to work from and I was able to start right away. I am still trading e-mails with the other, but we may be able to get started as soon as I finish this one. As you can see, I have sketched up the first dog. It is a brown and white puppy, but I can’t quite determine the breed. It kind of reminds me of the Japanese chin I did a while ago, but I am not sure. All I can really tell is that it is quite small
I didn’t get a chance to work on the shadowing of the studio painting but it will be up again after the pet portraits are finished.
And lastly, today, once again I managed to be my own worst enemy. We were out planting vinca on a hillside next to the driveway and I tripped and fell on my right hand at the base of my thumb and wrist. It didn’t hurt too much when I did it, but now they are starting to ache so I’ve taken some ibuprofen and am icing it some. I’ll use a heating pad later. I sure hope I haven’t done anything too bad to myself. I need to be able to use my hand to finish the portrait this week.
Ruth's Artwork 
May 04, 2014 @ 20:11:58
Congratulations on the new orders! My goodness, I hope your hand recovers in speedy fashion!
May 04, 2014 @ 21:25:57
Yes, I hope so too. I have been heating it up all evening so it is not stiff. Just a little sore. We’ll see what tomorrow brings.
May 04, 2014 @ 20:32:55
Do you always use a grid? Do you transfer your sketch onto different paper? Hope you feel better!
May 04, 2014 @ 21:35:23
Yes, I always use a grid right on the watercolor board for the animals. It helps me get the basics right which is so important for a living creature. I leave it there for the inking, then erase it all for the watercolors. I do that for a looser effect to keep the picture fresh and it allows me to paint freely.
I don’t grid for my architecturals. I lay them out with a ruler and some drafting triangles. For some reason that helps keep them from coming out too stilted and rigid. I don’t know why each one works out better that way for me, but it does.
May 12, 2014 @ 22:12:46
Thank you for sharing! 🙂
May 05, 2014 @ 12:11:41
I just know that this will be another of your
masterpieces, but I will be back as soon as I
can to see the final result 🙂 Have fun today 🙂
Andro
May 05, 2014 @ 16:13:40
Thanks. I’llk be working on it today.