WesleyIn Private collection

16 x 15 inches
Acrylic on line and wash board

A study of a male dog depicted on a plain white background, leaving the white board unpainted. So the viewers eye is focused only on the dogs head as there is nothing else to compare it with. And that sounds so easy. But it isn't. Because, as you paint, some of it quite naturally might just splatter a bit, or the brush might get dropped whilst it was loaded with paint, or catch the side of the paper as the brush is dragged across the surface. And none of that would matter normally because any tiny mistakes like that would easily be covered by the background colour. If there is any. If there isn't, then it puts more pressure on the artist to make sure that NOTHING touches the paper but the paint, in ONLY the place it should be and NO-WHERE else!!! Not even a hairs breath outside the outline I was working to.

And just to add to the "difficult" aspect, the dog is a black Labrador on a white background. Ok, so now I have to consider "colour" where there may not be any. So I had to look very closely at the delightfully clear photos I'd been given to work with, and there was colour. Yes, lots of it. It wasn't just a BLACK dog, there were a myriad of colours, pale blues darkening to navy blues, lemon yellow, hints of iridescent greens, a touch of burnt sienna, and even magenta as well as white, greys and the deepest of deep dark black. There is a lot of colour and that has been picked up in the painting.

Then, on to the form, the shapes, the moulding of the dogs head. I had to capture the form, so that it looked like a dog, with bony protrusions but covered in muscle and skin. And on top of all of that, was the fur, a million tiny hairs, each a slightly different colour, light on dark, dark on light. And all of that had to be pulled together to make the character of the dog. So that the owner "knew" the dog and recognised it as their faithful friend.

And, most important of all, is getting the eyes "right". Because if an animals eyes aren't right, the whole thing looks wrong. So very very wrong. The eyes have to look like they are an eyeball sitting IN the eye socket. They have to look spherical since they are a ball. They have to look like the light is catching them in exactly the right place. They have defined edges but the middles are hazy colours, melting into each other, softly but with rounded shape. But most of all the eyes need to make the animal look intelligent. And look like that they can see out of them. And they pull the whole painting together, when they're done properly.

The head is painted in a "tight" style dry on dry (dry paint on dry paper). This male dog has a rough coat and the acrylic paint was perfect for picking out the tiny details, the quizzical and slightly sad look that make the character and personality of this dog.