Finished my first dog commission

Well this has been one of those paintings that I was unsure what the final result would be. Obviously I knew what the dogs were going to look like that was fixed. I've ended up much closer compositionally to the photo then I'd first intended. I liked my first autumnal wood scene but felt the main emphasis was been taken away from the dogs. As this is a commissioned dog portraiture they obviously needed to take centre stage. I decided that a simplified background with darker tones would bring out the dogs. The bridge was also light in tone, I just felt the dogs were being lost. Anyways I'm finished, here the original snap shot again.

Have I made the right choice?

Well changed the background, I think the dogs are coming out better. I was feeling it was all too light, oh I don't know any more!

Done some background...

Excuse the title not very imaginative! But the fact is I have added a woody background scene today. Started to consider the bridge the dogs are on. The planks in the foreground come around at a odd angle. As previously mentioned I really like the shadows on the bridge so want to get to grips with these. Once I finish the bridge I can assess the tonal values and hues when looking at the picture as a whole composition.

Just a quickie!

I spent an hour on this just playing with the dogs eyes and expressions. Tried to get some more texture in the fur. Tomorrow I have a lovely free day, so will start the background. I've some lovely autumnal shots of woodland landscape, the scene in the piccy isn't of significance so I think the different scene would be great. I've still lots more to do on the dogs but need to see the picture as a whole. The dogs are very blonde so don't want to work their fur too much yet as I think the right background will help to bring them out.