Winston’s portrait was commissioned with a gift voucher a few weeks ago. The voucher was purchased as a Christmas present for the client’s brother. I was delighted to receive the lovely photos of Winston to work from. He is just beautiful, the colour of his fur just sang out and I wanted to capture it as best I could. Winston is a hungarian vizsla dog, also known as a velcro dog. I had a few photos to work from, but the intensity of his eyes in the photo the client and I chose worked really well. I removed some of the strong shadow falling on to the top of his head and eyes.
The painting is 45 x 35 cm in size. I worked with acrylic paint on thin edge stretched canvas. I started with a line sketch in yellow ochre followed by thin coats of paint. I applied a lot more detail to Winston’s head especially his eyes and muzzle. When finished, I varnished the painting with two coats of satin UV varnish to protect it from dust.
The client was very happy with the painting:
Hi Ivana!! Wow! What can I say!! Stunning painting. Thank you so much!!! You really captured his true character and personality in the painting. It’s truly amazing and I will treasure it.
Kevin, County Waterford, Ireland
I took some photographs of the painting when working. I began by sketching the portrait with a line sketch of yellow ochre. The second step was to add some colour blocks to describe Winston’s likeness and background. After this, I started adding some details to Winston’s head, especially his eyes and muzzle. I let the painting ‘sit’ on the shelf in my studio facing away for a few days. I returned to it then to make sure I was happy with his likeness. It is always helpful to see a portrait with ‘fresh eyes’ after a few days.
Once I was happy, I scanned the painting and emailed the image to the client. He was very happy with the result. I applied two coats of varnish before posting the portrait.
