Animal Portraits

Queen from the Humane
Society of Tacoma and
Pierce County

Learning to paint a portrait of an animal is much easier than you'd think. All it takes is practice. The eyes are the most important feature to get right, along with capturing the facial expression. No matter what the subject, most artists will begin their painting with a sketch.

For our Paws with Cause portraits of shelter animals, we start with a photo of the potential adoptee. Sometimes the photo will include the whole body. I personally prefer more of a close-up view. We sketch the animal onto a blank (8X10) canvas using permanent marker. 

My Traced Sketch of Queen

Once you're satisfied with the sketch, we often suggest going over the lines using puff paint to preserve a tactile feel to help seniors stay within the lines, especially if eyesight is an issue. Whether at our Sit-Stay-and-Paint parties or leisurely painting at home each canvas already comes pre-sketched.

My Sketch of Bo

Bo from Forgotten
Dogs Rescue

Some painters may find it easier to start with the background. Others may jump right in and work on the facial features. It really doesn't matter where you start. Using acrylic paint allows you to build up layers as you go. Don't worry about making a mistake; the paint dries quickly and can be easily touched up later.

Many experienced artists use their sketch to define the proportions and placement within the rectangle. Some painters may depend more upon the lines as guides. Remember that the face is the most important part. In my painting, I will keep Bo's teal harness but edit out the orange leash.

Another approach is to consider painting within the areas defined by the lines that have been drawn. If you work in a small area at a time, then the areas encapsulated by the lines become areas of colored shapes. Don't forget that the printed photo is always there to reference for those details that may now be covered up with color.

Once the initial layers have been established it's time to begin to add textural details such as fur, shading, and highlights to give your portrait dimension (such detail may spill over into the background). I tend to spend most of my time on the subject and less time on the background. With watercolors, I like to wash over larger areas with diluted colors with the intention of going back later with more saturated colors.

Perhaps you started your painting with a solid color in the background (be sure to mix enough of the base hue). If so, then this would be the time to make it more interesting and fun. That's totally up to you! I chose to finish with a beachy background for my portrait of Bo. Our family dogs love frolicking on the beach. Though most beaches don't allow dogs to be off-leash, My daughter takes her dog to a waterfront off-leash dog park in Edmonds, Washington.

Here's a watercolor painting I did of three dogs at the Palm Springs Dog Park. On the left is a printout of the photo I took. And on the right is the finished painting.

Here is what it looked like partway through the process. You can see my light brown colored pencil lines in the sketch. After washes and layers of watercolor paint, my lines could no longer be seen.

Athenaeum (1795),
from the Smithsonian
National Gallery

An Allegory of
Virtue

While on a trip to the UK in 2017, we visited the Scottish National Gallery. Hanging there was this unfinished painting by an unknown artist. Everything but the central figure was painted first, including the background. Such studies are for an artist's own use and not intended to be displayed. One such artist is American portrait artist, Gilbert Stuart, who used an unfinished portrait of George Washington (“Athenaeum”) as the model for all future portraits of our first President. He used it as the basis for his engraving on the one dollar bill.

Sketching an image on a pumpkin is a little more challenging. It is important to clean the outside of your pumpkin before sketching. I've never used carbon paper for this. Some people print out a pattern and poke tiny holes along the outlines. Permanent marker works best, and don't be afraid that you will see the lines after carving because the pumpkin will sweat during carving. I use soapy water or Windex to remove more stubborn marks.

For pumpkin carving, you will need to decide upon the positive-negative space. Decide what is to be cut away (showing the light) and what is left behind (the dark skin). If you want a middle ground (gray tone) then you will need to peel the skin to the desired depth for just the right glow. This also works well for skulls. When peeled the face shows up in daylight and becomes creepier at night.

For my Husky pumpkins, I did a really challenging one with a Washington 'W' in the background. I love how the bright spot of the candle made the husky's face look white! Admittedly, there is also a toothpick to attach the floating eye.

This year I found a much easier design online that uses simple cutouts. I intend to use blue translucent pony beads for the eyes. Notice how much more 3D the dog looks with the head turned at a slight angle. The important thing to remember when taking away the flesh is to be mindful of the structure of what's left behind. We need to balance the positive and negative space in our design. I can already see that the left side of the snout is going to be a problem!

I decided to use one of the smaller pumpkins that we grew in our garden this year, since I intend to use this design for my online class. The entire back side of this gourd was rotten, so I decided to gut it from the back, leaving a large opening. Later, I performed a repair using the back of another small pumpkin, just like Dr. Frankenstein would have done (never done this before). As you can see, I had to resort to a toothpick to support the snout!

When I did the raven pumpkin with the large moon in the background, I had to support the head and beak with a toothpick because of shrinkage as the pumpkin began to dry out and rot. So don't carve those jack-o-lanterns too early!

On Halloween day at the Everett Farmers Market, I will be demonstrating pup-kin carving. Alas, they aren't shelter animals that Paws with Cause supports, although they show many of the techniques required to do an animal portrait on a pumpkin. There will be lots of scraping. Luckily, I purchased a set of linoleum block printing cutters from Amazon!