Another Animal portrait

Puppy in Boat

Puppy in Boat

I’m working on a puppy painting – commission. First I started with the drawing and very little detail.  Sometimes a photo will be somewhat washed out due to being taken during the middle of the day and not give you much as far as shadows so you have to get that somehow.  Otherwise your painting will be flat.   I use photoshop a lot in my artwork and find that I can sometimes draw out those shadows by using Image, Adjustment, Levels.  By using the slider, you can increase or decrease the light in the photo.  This will bring out the dark areas if they are there.   Next I put in the dark pastels, then the lights and mid-tones.  No detail is put in at this time.  I used block strokes as much as possible with this puppy.  Personally I like the painting as is and will pursue more of this in the future with other paintings

More detail in the next segment.