This is a detailed demonstration of a dog portrait from start to finish. To see my portraits in progress and get painting tips for beginners, visit my art blog, howipaint.com.
When painting a portrait, I try to find a balance between capturing the likeness accurately, and creating a mood that reflects my subject's character.
I start by looking at my reference photos. This will be a portrait of Filo, a yellow lab from California, posing near an alpine lake in the Sierra mountains. I started with two photos: Filo in the desired pose for the portrait, and a reference photo of the background, with Filo in the picture to show the scale:
I paint my portraits in acrylic on canvas. You can read more about the materials and the canvas on the materials page. I'm left-handed, but over the years I have learned to paint with both hands, and I paint some parts of the paintings right-handed now.
I start with a quick sketch. I don't usually do very detailed sketches, since they will be painted over anyways. The sketch is just to check the initial proportions and map out where each element of the painting will go.
I usually start a painting by painting in the portrait subject, then paint the background around them later. I do this because I want to get the most difficult part out of the way first, and I want to make sure I'm matching the background to the subject, and not the other way around. In a portrait, the background sets the subject into a scene, but it should not distract from the focus of the portrait. I started off painting Filo with a thinned out wash of purple paint. This underpainting of purple will be almost totally covered by subsequent layers of paint, but a little bit will show through, giving Filo a warm glow. I nearly always use this technique in portraits, but I vary the color depending on the animal. I chose purple in this case because it is complimentary to the yellow and brown tones in Filo's coat.
While the purple paint is still wet, I mark in the areas of high contrast on Filo's nose and eyes, and the shadows around the edges of his head and body.
Now, I make a mixture of yellow, brown and white paint and paint in more detail on Filo's fur. See what I mean about the purple showing through a little bit?
Now, I've got Filo painted in except for a few touchups. I'm ready to start on the background. I cover Filo with a paint masking fluid, so that I can paint the surrounding area without covering up my previous work. Then, I begin painting in the water and rocks behind him. For the area on the left side of the painting, where you can see the reflections from the trees in the water, I mixed brown paint into the blue while it was still wet to make more realistic looking water.
Next, Filo's rock, the trees on the shoreline, and the sandbar to the right of the rock. I used masking tape to make the shoreline straight.
Now, the sky. I mixed blue and white paint, with just the slightest hint of yellow to make a sky-blue sky with wispy clouds.
Mountains are next. I put in the blue of the mountains first, and I'll be adding more layers of color after it dries. In this photo, you can see the masking fluid that is protecting Filo's face from being painted over.
The snow on the mountaintops is made with very thin strokes of white paint. I mix in a lot of water so the paint goes on semi-transparent, and I build up layers as I go.
More touchups to the sky and mountains. I've peeled off the masking fluid in this one, so you can see Filo's face clearly again. The painting is almost finished, but it needs some adjustments.
I decided I didn't like the look of the sandbar on the right side, and it did not look true to the original scene. To remove it, I painted over top of that area with a thin layer of white paint. After that layer dried, I used some of the blue paint mixture I made for the lake, and painted in water. I like this composition better because it removes distraction and puts more focus on Filo.
Once a painting is finished, I paint the edges of the canvas to match the front, and I sign the painting in the lower right hand corner. After letting the paint dry thoroughly, I apply a clear surface coating to protect the painting from dust and light damage over the years.
