Pibble sketch

If you've read my last few blogs, you may remember that I've been struggling to paint a pitbull, but the pictures I was sent aren't high enough resolution for me to see the detail.

And the dog's dead, so I just can't offer to come out and take pictures. (I also have a broken camera but that's another story.)

I was told that the dog in the painting I really like, Roxanne, looked like a chihuaha. And the first painting I did of this dog really did look like a chihuaha, or, perhaps what my critique group said, a fox.

So, I went back to the drawing board, almost literally. I know that Roxanne's ears stick up, that she has a white chest and an assymetrical streak on her nose. She's beige.

So, I meditated about this, looked at some pibble pictures, and this is what I came up with. Notice that the drawing is directly on the 5x5 canvas.

I now am waiting for the customer to tell me whether this sketch looks at all like Roxanne.

Rascal - 90 percent

Meet Rascal.

I thought she was done, but when I scanned her, I saw the blotch under her right eye.

So, I fixed it and she has much more blues/purple in the latest.

I'll scan that one too.........

Roxanne -- 90 percent

Can you tell that this pup is smiling?

I went through a couple of months of self-doubt when my beloved told me that I was painting mean looking animals in this picture, Minnie, and one other.

It's all the worse because these three paintings are of deceased animals and I can't ask for more pictures.

Well, I did for Roxanne. I initially painted her looking at the camera in a front shot. But for some reason, that pose made her look more like a chihuaha than a pitbull.

I am working with very limited resolution pictures, too, for some reason. It is the first commision I've gotten where the picture quality had an impact on the painting quality.

I will have to scan this again, cuz I painted over the green stripe on her face.

Minnie

Sweetest cat?

On the picture I was given, her ears were flatter and she looked almost mean.

Leah Jackson, a dog portrait painter I truly admire, says she doesn't do cats cuz she makes them look mean, and no one wants a mean picture. Up until this painting, I had no idea what she was talking about.

My most vocal critic (and supporter, too) says now she doesn't look mean, just intense.

I think she looks a little sweet.............

We'll see what the woman who commissioned this says.