The creation of the memorial portrait of Ted

Ted

 c 30 x 40cms image 

 Framed Oil

 Holly from West Australia had me create a pastel  portrait of her dog Bruno.

 

She'd lost her horse Ted a few years ago to old age . 

We have just created a memorial portrait of him in Oil.

We had a lovely photo of Ted from many years ago. It wasn't very clear so I had to use extra photos to help me with the shape of his eyes and other details.

He'd also just been clipped so he looked a golden colour which wasn't typical. He's more of a liver /darker chestnut. The only photos we had to show me his true colour were more recent when he was pretty old.

 Here is the nicest photo we had .It was taken many years ago.

 As you can see it doesn't enlarge sharply. I need to enlarge the photos so I can see enough detail to help me with eye shape , nostrils, head structure etc..

 I used the one below of an older Ted to help me with the detail and his colour.

I cropped it to just a head photo and it was still pretty sharp! 

The sketch. Holly asked for his mane to be out rather than plaited and his  noseband to be removed.

 Here is an early stage on my easel surrounded by all the photo I used to help. I even had photos of my own horse Zeuss who has a similar head structure to help.

Here I have done an underpainting wash in acrylic. I usually use the opposite colour to the end Oil colour but here I planned to use a different method and change the colour by several washes/ layers .

 As it turned out I didn't have the patience to wait for each layer to dry before adding the next! It takes several days for them to dry. As a result of this the portrait took a bit more fiddling at the end to give it the zap I wanted.

 

Here I have done the fun bits - his eyes and nose in Oil paint and started to build up the density of the darker areas with Oil washes.

 Below-  A bit more advanced.

I decided to do a bit of the planned background colour to see how he looked.I ended up modifying this to more of a blue as the painting progressed. I've also started to do his bridle. I like to understate the tack if possible as Ted is the star not his bridle!

 

I'm still adding Oil washes and he is gradually getting darker and more like the colour he should be. I've also added more detail to the bridle and the darker areas.

 

Below- I've added the background colour , done more of the bridle and added some interesting colour to the darker areas. About here I liked him but thought he was a bit dark and boring.

 I want my portraits to be as colourful as they can be and still look like your pet.

 Finally I'm happy! 

He is a lot more colourful but still 'reads ' as a darker chestnut horse.

I've added more details to his face and highlighted his bridle enough to add colour but not enough to distract from his eye and his expression which is the important part!

I've also modified the background to best enhance him.

Here he is framed again.