Ella - 20 x 20cms Oil on Canvas

Megan bought her friend Alison one of my gift certificates as a birthday gift. Alison and I organised the portrait soon after.

 Alison didn't have many sharp photos of Ella but luckily her favourite was just sharp enough to use.The original photo was a full body one but a small portrait has best impact with  a head only pose so I cropped it down.

 So cute !
A lovely photo but to do her justice a portrait would need to be a minimum 30 x 40cms or 40 x 50cms image size.Otherwise her face would be too small.

  This cropped image is much better for a small portrait! As you can see the photo isn't really sharp ( you can't see the edge of her nose or the hairline above her mouth) but I can get by.

It's always hard to get a sharp reference photo when you crop a photo.
 Cropping enhances any blurriness in the original photo and unless it's a really large megapixel file it won't be very sharp.

 Luckily Ella is a long haired dog. A short haired dog where you need to show the head bone structure needs a sharper photo so I can see where their cheekbones etc are.

I used other photos with Ella to get her nose and mouth correct.

 The finished portrait. I have suggested her eye just peeking out between her fringe. I removed her pink tag as it would have distracted us from her face.

 

Ella 

 20 x 20cms 

 Oil on canvas hang as it or frame 

"It looks fantastic!! Definitely no need to change anything. You've done a great job."

 Alison

Here are some early stages of the portrait.

Below - The rough as guts under painting ..I usually do an accurate sketch for portraits but with the smaller 20 x 20cms ones I just jump in boots and all and correct things as I go! You can see I am moving her right eye as I add the oil.

Below- Starting to do the Oil over painting . I had some fun doing her mouth first..

 

 

Below-  Here I'm having fun with her fur. I came back and changed the colours several time so the portrait was cohesive and then detailed a little more.

 For some reason the camera didn't focus very well on the portrait in the early stages so the photos aren't as sharp as they should be - sorry.

 You can see I've got tape on the portrait to make sure she doesn't fall forwards into the wet paint palette!  She already has the hanging cord on and that was pushing her out from the easel and making her more prone to tipping off.

The finished portrait again..I've chosen a background colour that enhances her and so she stands out well.