Oil Portrait GSD

judyl40 wrote

on 31 Mar 2010 2:39 PM

Haven't posted anything for awhile.... hope this works. Oil on canvas 20" X 10". It's a commissioned portrait from existing photos of a well loved deceased shepherd.

C & C welcome... this is my first 'real' oil portrait. My medium for the last 30 or so years has been acrylic.

Sharon Repple wrote

on 31 Mar 2010 8:57 PM

Stunning, Judy, you have done an excellent job on this oil painting

Margo5 wrote

on 1 Apr 2010 7:35 AM

Very nice. You really nailed that German Shepherd "look."

EdnaParkWaller wrote

on 1 Apr 2010 8:33 AM

Judy, you have made the transition to oil beautifully. Well done.

judyl40 wrote

on 1 Apr 2010 9:50 AM

Thank you, Sharon, Margo & Edna. This is really good to hear.

I was a little concerned about the drying time, (I had a solid deadline) but that just made me push to get it done in plenty of time... it was even dry enough to put some retouch varnish on it.

Thanks again!

Robin11 wrote

on 1 Apr 2010 12:30 PM

Perfect, absolutely gorgeous!!!  Congrats on the commission! 

j.b2 wrote

on 1 Apr 2010 3:09 PM

Judy, nice, I love it!

He looks similar to Tanner my Shepard. The one sleeping in my avatar...

judyl40 wrote

on 2 Apr 2010 10:09 AM

Thanks Robin, j.b.

I think it was a turning point for me... I finally feel comfortable enough with oil to actually sell in that medium. Fur is fun in oils!

Margo5 wrote

on 2 Apr 2010 11:29 AM

I would love to know how you did the flooring.

judyl40 wrote

on 4 Apr 2010 12:34 PM

Actually, Margo, the floor was pretty easy. For the most part, I worked as thinly & transparently as I could from the start, doing a lot of wiping with a rag. My palette was Hansa Yellow Medium, Indian Yellow, Burnt Sienna, Burnt Umber, Ultramarine, & once I was  working more opaque, I used Naples Yellow & Cremnitz White.

So the floor was mostly Hansa & Indian yellow, (it's the only place I used the Hansa yellow) with a mix of the sienna & umber to delineate the grain of the floor/floorboards. Once I got to the opaque stage, I put some of the Naples yellow & white in to pick up the more highlighted parts of the floor, & the shadows were mostly glazes of Indian yellow/burnt sienna.

I took photos of this as I went... I'll see if I can get the time to put a work-in progress of this up so you can see how it developed.

Margo5 wrote

on 4 Apr 2010 4:07 PM

Thank you. This is great. I would love to see your pictures of the progression on that. You did a really good job.

judyl40 wrote

on 11 Apr 2010 10:10 AM

Ok, I finally found the time to organise these. I forgot to take a shot after each & every session...  but there's enough here to get an idea of how it progressed.

Margo5 wrote

on 11 Apr 2010 10:29 AM

Jdyl40, thank you for posting this. It always helps to see the different steps an artist took to arrive at a painting.