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Dog Portrait Critique
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Message
Posted
Hi all,
I wonder if you could critique this work I am doing. Something seems off and before I ruin it - please can someone cast a fresh eye. :-) I welcome the critique and it would be greatly appreciated! Thank you!
ps. I can't seem to get the tongue right either - first time doing a tongue, ha ha :-)
Edited
by Yvette Hutton
Posted
What a lovely dog...I know one just like this one he's called Charlie.
I think you need to look at the shape of the top of his head and how the eyes are placed. The photograph has a lot more shadows than you have used and consequently it gives more shape. Same possibly woukd apply to the tongue.
He's lovely and you are doing great. Oh one last thing then I will shut up,don't chop him off at the neck. So many dog portraits are "chopped" and it looks aweful....
Edited
by Sylvia Evans
Posted
I would second what Sylvia says about the shadows - should be deeper, and re his neck. If you’re using a photo, try turning it, and your painting upside down, and you will notice details you don’t see the right way up.
There’s not a lot needs fiddling with. He’s pretty much there, and a handsome dog!
Posted
I missed this one, but anyway I agree with the others. Shadows will resolve all, especially the tongue.
I suggest (if you have a printer) running off a copy, preferably in colour but I do know the price of printer ink!, and then work on it with coloured pencils so you can see what needs to be done with the painting and then return to it, re-armed with competence and confidence....
Posted
In photoshop I've turned it black & white and posterized it (7). This gives a quick and easy way to spot the difference. The shadows are not dark enough, the area of shadow under the nose is not large enough, the nose itself should extend almost to the lip. You've added a highlight to the nostril that is not there. I'm only saying these things I see because you've asked, it's really very good as is, well done with a tricky dog to paint. 
Posted
Ah - high technology: some have moved beyond the humble printer!
Just in passing, I spent - along with everyone else around here - Christmas Day afternoon and night in darkness relieved only by candles and enlivened by cold pheasant, and all the alcohol I could force down my neck, because we had a festive power-cut. So I recommend now working on the picture by candlelight - you'll get some lovely shadows. Shadows is just about ALL you'll get, but still.....
Don't think me bitter. I'm sure it's terribly romantic, eating cold, dead bird by candlelight. On your own. Who needs Bah, Humbug, when you have Southern Electricity - or whatever fly-by-night bunch the old electricity board has been flogged off to - to convey their very own spirit of Christmas to you?
Anyway, when you do your shadows, yes the tongue, and don't forget the dog's beard: I removed a burr from the landlord's very elderly dog's beard yesterday, AND - she let me keep my fingers. She really must be getting old...
Posted
Worse things happen at sea. Which isn't quite the comfort it might be, since we live right on the edge of it, atop a cliff of dubious permanence. Yes, I've seen all the snow pictures, and while I don't regret the lack of a Christmas tree and paper chains - they always came down in the middle of Christmas lunch, owing to my mother's lack of expertise with blue-tack and drawing pins, festooning uncles and aunts and dipping into the bread sauce - I do miss a bit of festive snow. Just enough to last through the holiday period, gone by the time we have to go out again.
Snow is rare on the Isle of Wight - rain, sadly, isn't. It's dry at the moment, even a touch of sunshine, but that won't last. I only paint snow when I can see it - a self-denying ordinance in which there isn't really a lot of point; a bit of clean, crisp cold, as opposed to penetrating chilly damp, would inspire me to paint... but rain! No. I don't want to paint rain....
Posted
Hi all! Thank you SO much for all your comments! So many great comments and suggestions. It is much appreciated and I have been working on the painting - I especially love the posturized picture - it shows up so much and I can now see I have a bit more to do on the nose and tongue but wanted to share my progress so far.
Edited
by Yvette Hutton
