Olivia – Photos of a Commission from Beginning to End

This is Olivia, my most recent commission. Olivia’s mom is on the board for the Southern Oregon Humane Society, and this painting will be shown as an example of my silent auction donation at A Toast for Tails on May 14th. With this commission, I made it a point to take photographs of the painting as it progressed. The first photo is the actual photograph I worked from. The next, is the image of Olivia drawn out onto the canvas. I grid out the proportions and draw her in, checking the final drawing using a proportional divider, just to make sure the proportions are all correct. Then, I erase the grid lines and spray the canvas with fixative. The third photo is my first pass at getting the canvas covered with paint. I don’t like the way paint slides around on the newly fixed canvas, so I just focus on the dog’s eyes and getting the colors approximately correct with the rest of the painting. I also try to make the eyes and nose more visible than in the original photograph since you can barely see them. Then I let the paint dry. The next step is getting more of the darks in correctly and rechecking the proportions, as often it seems that the features tend to expand in size as I paint. I also adjusted the background color a bit to make it more “plummy”. The last photo is the finished painting – with all the highlights added, and other minor adjustments made to the painting – Olivia is such a cutie 🙂