Riva, A German Shepherd Dog, oil painting

My final painting in the 2013 Canine Parade of Christmas Pet Portraits: Riva!!

Riva will be a Christmas gift for Kira's parents. Their German Shepherd passed away this year and they miss her greatly so hopefully this painting will provide some comfort and a nice remembrance of her. When your children are grown and out of the home your pets can become almost like children. I know mine are very close to my heart.

The reference photo had some problems. You know how the animals look in the road at night right before you slam on your brakes to avoid hitting them? They have this unholy gleam in their eyes. Well, Riva's picture had that too and this was the best reference I was offered. Once again, Google to the rescue! I found a dog at L.A. German Shepherd Rescue that looked almost identical to Riva and I used her as the reference for the eys and a few other details that simply were not clear in the low res blurry photo I was given.

People- I can't stress enough how important a good reference is if you want a good painting. I could never produce a head and shoulders painting of Riva from the photo provided but I was able to make a pretty good painting of her guarding the door to her home. This was her parent's favorite picture so I really tried to work that door into it. And the red does look wonderful against the black fur and accented by her red collar.

Another Try at Meti

We have our model pose for four weeks so sometimes you end up doing 2-3 versions of the same person. Meti is very beautiful and exotic so I don't mind in her case. She is able to hold a pleasant expression and her silk scarf is fun to paint. On other occasions we have had the same person for five weeks and by the 4th and 5th week attendance is way down as we are all tired of painting and drawing that person. With Meti - it is different. She is truly different and inspiring. I see this common reaction to her among the other artists who attend my group as well.

In any case I decided to do a drawing of Meti last week. I rarely draw anything anymore except for layouts or thumbnails to decide on a composition. So this was a relaxing day, just sketching values in and trying to get a likeness. The charcoal pencil is slower than painting but easier to control.

When I was finished with my drawing I used the drawing plus a photo I took of her to create a small 8" x 10" painting at home. This piece had a quite different feel to it than the first one I did because I concentrated on creating a good composition from the very beginning. It also doesn't really look like Meti but at this point I was more concerned with capturing the light and shadow than I was in getting a likeness.

This is a good example of why we need to paint or draw things that inspire us. Inspiration equals motivation and motivation gets the concept off the ground.