Rascal with different colors

Last time I posted Rascal, I talked about a green smudge under his eye that was a mistake. It's gone. All other smudges that you see are not mistakes! Ha!

Really, I generally like to have smudges on my paintings. Look at a few of my past paintings and you'll see.

The smudge disappeared and more turquoise/green appeared.

This was mailed off on Tuesday.

Sketching Penny

As I was leaving the pet store the other day, a woman asked me why I hadn't painted my own dog. I stuttered and hmmmed, but the truth is she's very hard to paint. She's got floppy jowls and an expressive face that's pretty hard to capture.

But, I've realized lately that I've not been spending enough time sketching things that aren't commissions, so I decided I'd try a few rough sketches every day.

And that is what this is.

You can of course become her friend on Facebook. Search for Penny the BRD. BRD stands for Big Red Dog. Like Clifford. I don't call her PBRd because I don't want her confused for an alcoholic beverage.

Different eyes

I posted Minnie earlier this month asking whether she looked mean.

One of my critics, and fan, suggested that her eyes were a bit too stark and contributed to her mean look.

I toned down the eyes and I believe she looks like a gentler soul, which is what her owner said she was.

She was sent to the woman who commissioned her earlier this week.

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.