Oscar, Bella, and Odie Finished!!

Oscar, Bella, Odie
18X24
Oil on Canvas Panel
Commissioned
Click on image to enlarge the view.

...Ta Da!! I am finished with these babies!! I don't know if I remembered to mention that these are rescued dogs. Oscar, in the middle, is no longer with us. Bella and Odie, left and right, are the current lucky dogs belonging to a darling family in Florida. The next challenge here, besides hoping it dries in time to varnish it, is the shipping. I have a Fed Ex account, but have never used it...and since Fed Ex brought me the frame in good time and great shape, I think Fed Ex is the shipper of choice on this. Meanwhile, it will be sitting here drying until the last minute before Christmas. Fingers crossed!

It has been a fun painting to do. I was stretched to do this format with the solid background...not something I've done before. There was an inspiration picture of a painting with this type of format and background, so that was helpful.

Onward to the next challenge!

Oscar, Bella, and Odie WIP

Oscar, Bella, and Odie
18X24
Oil on Canvas Panel


After I posted this morning I spent the rest of the morning and two hours this afternoon working to get this more finished.  I leaned the frame up there just so I could get an idea of how that will look in the end.  Frames make such a huge difference.  The khaki background was not as hard to mix as I thought it would be. 

I have to say...I've been painstakingly slow with this painting.  I've not painted three dogs in one painting before, plus the format is different from anything I've done before.  I've been very tentative on the whole thing.  I still will tweak the edges of the dogs and add some more red to the one on the right.  But..I am glad to be nearing the finish.  I think it is turning out just as ordered, which is a relief.

An aside to this whole thing is that the person who commissioned this piece is a dear friend from my childhood who grew up with me all through school.  We had not been in touch for years and years, so we are catching up on a whole lifetime of experiences.  She became a culinary arts teacher for her career, another creative creature from our beautiful home town.  She is a very sweet person and commissioned this to give to her daughter for Christmas.  The pressure was on to make this over-the-top wonderful for my friend and her family.  I wish I could see the daughter's face when she opens this up on Christmas morning!

I'll post this one more time when it is dry enough to put into the frame and I have finished tweaking this and that..plus signing it.  Now I am thinking of what the next painting will be...stay tuned!!

Oscar, Bella, and Odie WIP

Close-up of Odie

I'm still working on this painting of the three dogs. Odie is not quite finished, but is coming along. I plan to finish him up today and then comes the ultimate challenge of adding the background color. We'll see how that goes....soon. I'll be back. :-)

Oscar, Bella, and Odie WIP

"Oscar, Bella, and Odie
18X24
Oil on Canvas Panel
Commission

Blogger is acting very weird tonight so I have no idea if this will actually post. First the photo upload would not work. And now I'm getting a message about an HTML tag being broken...which makes no sense. I think Blogger has bugs, but I'll try this anyway.

I have worked on Bella, the black beauty here, for the past couple of days. Black is always tricky..at least I think so. Looking for the blue greys and the brown greys and the infinite value differences on black is just one of those things....you don't know until you've tried it. In color is not the same thing as with charcoal or pencil where you just deal with the values. In color. it is a matter of noticing the way light plays onto the fur and brings in those shades of lavender or blue-ish grey...and then there is a tad of brown tones on the edges of her ears. Yes, black dogs are challenging...but she is worth it in the end. I like her. She looks so earnest, I think..like she is trying really hard to stay still for her master's camera.
Now onto the cute, shy Odie on the right. We'll see if he comes across as well. Stay tuned...

Oscar, Bella, and Odie WIP

"Oscar, Bella, and Odie"

18X24

Oil on Canvas Panel

Commission

I hope you will forgive the glaring photo. It is 11:00 pm and I just decided to take a progress photo to send off to the person who is commissioning this painting. This is the first commission for Christmas this year. I have not done three dogs in one painting before this...and we decided on just the head shots. Oscar, the one in the middle who is mostly painted, is gone now, sadly.  Bella is the next addition on the left. And then Odie came along on the right. They are all rescue dogs much loved by the owners. It may take me a while on this one...and I am hoping the background, when I get to it, will be subtle and the dogs will still pop. 

Long way to go...just thought I'd let you know I am still at the easel.  Stay tuned...