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.

Rude awakening

I was in the middle of a dream this am and there's a bash bash on the window....( ???grr).
My partner says - 'Quick get your shoes and glasses on and come out..!"
I followed him into the bush on the property half awake - thinking grumble , grumble..this better be good or you're dead..( LOL"s)..We wandered around for 5 mins then - ' over there!'
An emu! I went all the way to SA to see some and here is one at our place! lol's.
They aren't native to the area but I'd heard a rumour about a year ago that there was one around ( a refugee from a wildlife place??) . That was one reason I had avoided trail riding Zeuss much in the bush.
I knew if he had seen it he'd do the spin and bolt off in the other direction ( which I can stick with) but then be a bundle of jittery nerves for ages ( freaks me out and I don't enjoy).
Hopefully he has met it and they are now great mates!
Cripes here I was riding around the property thinking we were safe..

The story behind the memorial portrait of Max the young Maine Coon cat

Sian's story -

Max was a rescue Coon that we got from a family in the Blue Mountains who had also rescued him as a stray but 2 people in that family were allergic to him. Would you believe I found him on Gumtree!?

He was quite paranoid about food when we first got him but soon realised he didn't have to worry about food anymore! He was also feline FIV positive but it didn't make any difference to us.

We noticed in March 2014 that he'd stopped eating and after investigation through SASH in Sydney he ended up having part of his stomach removed to remove a large tumour and was on chemo until Oct 2014.

We had to feed him through a feeding tube in his neck for a few weeks and he'd just sit close to Peter all day on one of the breakfast bar stools , occasionally resting his head on one of our knees.

We didn't leave him alone again after that. There was always someone with him. During this time Peter drove him to Sydney every 2 weeks for his checkups and treatment.

 He responded well to chemo and was in remission very quickly but unfortunately not long after it stopped the cancer came back with a vengeance. He went downhill pretty quickly in the end. How ever his oncologist at SASH said he was already a unique patient in that he survived the chemo and went into remission. He was also the first one of theirs that had survived so long into round 2 of cancer.

Unfortunately it's more aggressive when it comes back the second time and he finally passed away in the car somewhere near Lane Cove on 31st Dec as peter was rushing him down to the SASH again. We think he had a heart attack.

 He was a very affectionate boy and loved sitting in the kitchen on the bench when things were going on.

 He especially loved his roast chicken and every few weeks Peter would cook a few chickens for him, which we'd strip and portion up as his cat food. He would get a bit hysterical over roast chicken!

 He was especially Peter's boy and would follow him around everywhere. ( Sue - Peter told me he was more like a dog than a cat).

Tiggs was his great friend but at the end when he was deteriorating fast, Rosie spent a lot of time close by him.

Sue - Here is the portrait I created of Tiggs

Rosie's portrait-

All the staff at SASH loved him as we did. They were all so upset when he died. There were tears all round and at our local vets at Maitland.

We just didn't think to take photos of him in the last year as he was so sick and looked awful but he was still a lovely affectionate boy who loved his cuddles.

Sue - I'm going to create a great memory of Max for Peter and Sian.

I'm using one of the few clear photos we have to create his portrait.

Here is an early stage of the underpainting in acrylic.

I need to have the portrait laying flat when I do the first acrylic washes - otherwise it runs off as it dries. Once this stage is dry I can place it on my easel and paint the drier acrylic underpainting and then the Oil.

Here the underpainting is finished. I have since painted his eyes and mouth roughly in Oil. The nest stage will be to continue to paint Max - I'll do the darkest areas first then his lighter fur.

Once he is roughly done I'll work on the background and rug.

The story of the memorial portrait of Shadow

Leonie has had me create several portraits over the years. She recently went to the Mediterranean and travelled around on her friend's Narelle and Peter's 70' luxury charter yacht.
 Shadow was their dog who'd  lived aboard for most of her life. They all feature in a TV series
http://www.imdb.com/media/rm2798975232/tt4175224?ref_=ttmd_md_nxt

Shadow was on her last legs when Leonie was there and passed away soon after. Leonie decided a portrait would really help them with their loss.
We didn't have any photos but managed to come up with some great still shots from the high quality TV footage.

Here she is

  

 

Memorial portrait of Shadow

30 x 40cms image 

 custom framed Pastel

It took a little while for her to be delivered to France but I received this lovely email.

"Dear Sue,

Your painting of our beloved Shadow arrived  in France without mishap.

The portrait is now hanging in pride of place , beautifully lit on our living room wall , with her ashes just beneath her in an urn on top  of a 17th century armoir .

We cannot express the delight  we feel each time we enter the room. Without knowing Shadow , you have managed to perfectly capture  her  expression and temperament. 

Her nose seems wet, her hair soft enough to still pat and those dow eyes looking down on us completely unravel us. 

We are totally overwhelmed and can't thank you enough. You are truly talented, not just in technique  but in portraying the very soul of someone we have known and loved.  It was the best gift we have ever received.

With our thanks and very best wishes,

Narelle and Patrick. "

 

Preparation for the annual portrait group exhibition

The portrait group I paint with are having there annual exhibition again in March.
It will be at the Adamstown Uniting Church Brunker Rd Adamstown 20-22nd March. More details closer to the date.
We have to paint a large portrait of a 'Hunter person of note'. I've chosen to paint Jeremy Janjic and his Fresian stallion Django.
I'm going to take more photos of Jeremy and  Django tomorrow.
This will be the third time I've gone up for a photo shoot which is a bit embarrassing but I really want to create a good portrait and it's taken me a while to decide on a pose.Afterwards I then need to do a quick sketch of Jeremy's face.( so it's not all done from photos).
As part of the exhibition prep today we did something a bit different at portraits. As part of the exhibition this year we were all  given an A4 sheet of cardboard . Everyone then painted their version of the model Hida on their A4 sheet.We then left them there to be taken for the exhibition.
 I don't normally touch my portraits after the session but some people take them home and finish them so this was done to make sure that each portrait was only what was completed on the day in 2.30hrs..pressure!
As they were smaller than I usually paint I actually completed more of mine than usual and I'm reasonably happy with it. As stated earlier we will also each have our larger portrait of the chosen subject - ' Hunter person of note"
As my large portrait will be quite realistic I decided to leave this one more unfinished and colourful as this is what I like to do when I am just painting for myself.
 I could finish him a bit more but this will have to do!
 It was funny to look around the room and realise everyone else had done a more conservative portrait version than usual because they were worried about them looking good.. lol's
                                                 
    Here's mine -
                                                               Hida
                                                       A4 Oil on board.

The creation of Isaak & Snuff - another secret Xmas gift portrait

Isaak is a retired riding pony who has had much success amongst his wins are some at  Sydney Royal show. 
Snuff the cat is a much loved ' child" for Janina's daughter Kristy and her partner.

Earlier Janina had me create a gift  portrait of her sister's 2 dogs - Bear and Milly so she knows how much portraits are appreciated.

Knowing how loved Isaak and Snuff were Janina asked me to create a portrait  with both of them in together. I came up and took suitable photos.
I took hundreds of photos .
Originally Janina had the idea of having Snuff ( the cat) sitting on a post near Isaak.. It wasn't to be! It's bad enough trying to control one animal forget about 2 !

We did get some flattering pics of each of them but none that could be put together and get a nice feeling for a portrait.
 
Eventually Isaak was put in the stable so Janina only had to control Snuff. She held Snuff on her shoulder at the right height and I took heaps of photos.
 
We then picked the two photos would go together most convincingly  and I photo shopped them to come up with the concept.
 Luckily something had caught their attention so they were both looking the same way..I think I mirror reversed the photo to come up with the best concept. 
 It was then up to me to make it look like they had been caught sitting naturally together in the portrait! I think they came up well.. So cute!

 

Isaak and Snuff

 40 x 50cms image size framed Oil
55 x 61cms framed size.

'Isaak and Snuff were a hit, Kristy said that was definitely her favourite gift.
They are already hanging up and taking pride of place in her room .'
 Janina  

Here are some earlier photos as the portrait was created.

I've done a rough acrylic underpainting and I'm now coming back in with Oil paint starting on Isaaks eyes.I was just going to have a coloured background but as the painting progressed I felt it needed more so included the tin stable wall.

 Here Isaak's eyes are roughly done and I'm using the darks of the stable to put the focus on them both. I later changed his eyes to darker as they just didn't look right.

 Staring to paint the darker shades of Isaak. Then I do the middle tones and then the lightest highlights..

 Starting on the next lighter tones. Each portrait goes through an ugly stage before it comes out the other side. Generally the larger the portrait the longer this lasts!

Bit more done..

Here I'm starting to work out what I'm going to do with the background..I loved the yellow but it wasn't possible to leave it like that..I also wanted them to stand out more so I needed a dark colour behind them.
Starting on the background stable. 
I've also got most of the colours down and now I'm  just finetuning each animal to make them more accurate , believable and real.
This is the slow stage. Often I'll go around in circles for a while before working out exactly what they need.. 

 

It's funny I expected Snuff to be the hard one to paint but I captured him early on and basically left him alone. Isaak took more fiddling.

Below again - 
The finished portrait  . 
I should have got a photo of Janina with the portrait as it's a fairly large one so you really need to have a person next to it to appreciate that.
55 x 61cms Framed size

'I am the lucky recipient of this gift, what can say?  I absolutely love it , you captured them both perfectly.' 
Kristy Glover

The creation of Tiki the Shar Pei's portrait

David had me create a portrait of Tiki as a secret Christmas gift for his wife Jacqui.

The original photos weren't sharp enough so  I had David take some more photos using my photo taking tips.

 This photo was one of his original ones and would have made a lovely portrait but was too blurry for me to use.

This was the one we decided on . 

The chosen photo was a bit dark and distorted ( her head is larger than it should be) but I fixed this in photoshop.

 It's easy to get 'big head' distortion if you get too close taking photos ( it's especially bad in horse photos! ).

 I recommend you get at your pets height and about 6-8' back and zoom in to avoid it.

 Here is is after I have  'fixed' it. The distortion doesn't show much in this example but it was obvious! In the one below she sits more upright. She seems to be front heavy in the one above.

Here is the acrylic underpainting done and I am starting to repaint her in Oil colour starting with the darks in her face and her eye.

Her eye was just a dark spot in the photo so I gave her more expression and life in the portrait.

Starting with Oil on her front leg. I chose my colours so she would be more 3D in the portrait than in the painting. Her face and front leg /shoulder are closer to you and stand out more while the rest of her body recedes.

I quite liked this stage but I wanted the background colour to make her really stand out and be the star. Although the portrait looked great from a distance at this stage it looked a bit unfinished and not 3D closeup so needed more work. Larger portraits take a long time to get to a good finish.

Starting on the background. I wanted her to have a simple background but sit convincingly in space. She is a very hard portrait to get a decent photo of. The camera kept washing out the photos ( too light and wishy washy). Even with editing I couldn't really get a photo that does her portrait justice in the flesh.

Here the background and overall concept is finished so I just have to fine tune her ( which takes the longest time.)

Her face isn't finished here but you can see their is more expression visible in a closeup photo. I forgot to take any when she was finished and you can't see it in the overall photos.

After this photo was taken  I just worked on making her face more 3D and real and the wrinkle folds convincing.

Here she is framed. As you can see the detail in her face doesn't show in the overall photo but you can see it in the original portrait.

Tiki

 40 x 50cms image size

 Custom framed Oil

'It looks great!! Very happy with her, Jacqui is very impressed.'
David

 Tasmania

The creation of Francis - a 2.30hr practise portrait from a model

It's always a race against time to create a portrait in such a short time. I spend a lot of time getting an accurate likeness in my blue acrylic under painting so I end up with only a very short time to put the Oil colour over the top and bring it all together.
 Francis is a great model and always gives us an interesting pose. I was disappointed to run out of time with this one as I felt given more time I could have created a good portrait.
Below is what I got done in the session.I'm happy with the general expression- I feel I have captured something of her nature. With more time I would have integrated her forehead and front of her cheeks with the rest of the portrait and done more with her hair and left eye.

 

Below- I start by just drawing the shape of her head to place it on the canvas. I use scraps of canvas and I was mad at myself as today I had only brought a skinny bit and when I saw the great model I wished I had a wider one! The yellow bits are just the tape holding the canvas onto the board. The tape comes off when it's finished.
  I just position her eyes nose and mouth making sure they are at the right angle for the pose and the distances are pretty right. Every person varies and even the angle of the head on the day affects where everything goes.

 

Above -  In this one I've darkened behinds her head to make it stand out drawn her clothes and started to block in her neck with tones ( shades of light and dark). This is what makes them look real and 3D.

Above-  A bit further along and it is starting to look like Francis!

 I'm starting to capture something of her expression.

 Coming along nicely.. I always hate continuing on from this stage. 
Often I have a good likeness and everything looks great and then I know it is going to start looking horrible for a while until right at the end.

Above-  Here I'm starting to put the Oil colour over. The usual method is to do all the darker colours / tones first, then the middle tones, the lightest and the details. 
Because I always run out of time I have come up with another way of working. It is harder to do as you have to be able to visualise a few stages ahead. Here I start on her mouth , nose base and eye doing dark accents.

Usually you would do all her skin colour first and do those last..This way I get to see if I am getting the expression earlier and it keep me motivated.

 

Above- Now I've started doing the highlights ( where the light catches on her face). I will fill in the darker skin tones later. This is a good way to go if the model starts to get tired and sag.The rims of light etc can then disappear/ change position  due to the different angle of her head so this way I have a record of them at their best!

 

Above - I'm starting to fill out her cheek- there was some great lighting that I wanted to catch. 

Below- Doing some darker bits of her hair- the lighter bits will now show better over them. 

I'm also starting to fill in the middletone colours in her face.

Below- This is as far as I got in the session. It's so frustrating when you're on a roll, things are going great , your all fired up, and then they say - "Ok that's it!' grr

Compare the colour between this one ( above ) and the one below.. Nothing has been changed except the lighting.. The top one is how she looked during the painting session- I was using the yellows etc..
When I got home the light was different and the yellow no longer showed. It's very frustrating! You get it how you want at portraits and then when you get them home they don't look as planned.. Oh well I suppose I don't mind either. 
This is one portrait that I may one day come back and finish. I have photos of her from the sitting.