As there is a lot of brown in the dogs and their background, I painted the entire canvas with dark brown made from burnt umber acrylic mixed with a little titanium white. Allowing small flecks of this background colour to show through in places is a great way to create harmony between all the elements of the composition.  I used acrylic paint to do this as it dried in ten minutes, allowing me to begin work on the oil painting right away. I then made the drawing using a pen and white transfer paper (see introduction above).

The entire background was painted with burnt umber, ultramarine blue, burnt sienna, yellow ochre and titanium white. A dark brown mixed from burnt umber and ultramarine blue was applied to the area under the table. I used the dark brown and a lighter brown made from burnt umber, burnt sienna and titanium white for the table. I used a large flat brush and made strokes going in the direction of the woodgrain. For the wood pile, I added yellow ochre to the table colours. Using a filbert brush
with its curved tip was an easy way to create the rounded ends of wood.
 

To paint the eyes and nose of the dogs, I first made black by mixing burnt umber with ultramarine blue.  These are the same ingredients for making dark brown, but increasing the ratio of ultramarine blue shifts the brown into black. I painted: the pupils – black; the whites of the eyes – titanium white mixed with a touch of black and ultramarine blue; the iris – burnt umber then yellow ochre at 4 o’clock and 5 o’clock; the sparkle – titanium white; the eyelid rim – grey (made from black and titanium white); the
skin around the eye – black; and the nose – black, light grey and dark grey.

1 Before painting the fur of Babu, I made a dark, medium and light shade of grey with burnt umber and ultramarine blue with increasing amounts of titanium white. A dark, medium and light shade of brown was also mixed by adding yellow ochre and burnt sienna into the grey shades. To paint fur, it’s important to think about length and direction of hair growth. I used a No. 2 Round for most of the fur, beginning at the hair base and flicking downwards. For the fine hairs on the face, I switched to a smaller No. 0 Round. I applied the dark grey and brown first then the medium grey and brown.
2 After the dark and medium colours were dry, I layered the light shades of grey and brown on top. This completed Babu.

1 The same process was used to paint the black-and-white Ricco. For the black patches of fur, I mixed a dark, medium and
light shade of black using burnt umber, ultramarine blue and titanium white. For the white patches of fur, I used light grey,
an even lighter grey and pure white. I painted the fur with the darkest black and white first then layered the medium black
and white on top. A little of Babu’s brown fur colour was used under Ricco’s chin.
2 Again, once the dark and medium fur colours were dry, the lightest shades of black and white were applied to complete Ricco.

1 The painting was now complete so I sent a photo to my clients for approval before varnishing. They loved the painting, but wanted one small change. They felt the fur parting down the centre of Babu’s forehead that was evident in the reference photo was not typical of how the fur normally fell so I made the adjustment to flick this fur upwards.
2 My clients were now completely satisfied with the finished painting so it was sprayed with two coats of gloss varnish and posted to Germany.