Animal Portraits with Seniors

I am now officially a Lead Art Docent at Assisted Living Centers here in South King and Pierce Counties. Painting portraits of shelter animals is a fun and engaging activity for Seniors. As with many of my art activities time is always a factor. While our Paws with Cause Sit-Stay-'N'-Play parties typically last 90 minutes, the Seniors seem to need more time to finish their masterpieces. We had four tables, including two at which staff members were present, and my volunteer and I were floating around replenishing supplies and changing water. Next time I plan to assign one helper at each table.

One of my helpers was a Staff person who recently hired on at the Assisted Living Center. She had painted before and managed to complete her portrait of Oso the Dog.

Another interesting animal was a cow wearing a party hat. The gentleman who chose the bovine subject seemed to enjoy painting the hat and horns. This is when I would suggest painting in the background and maybe leaving the body for last.

Several of our artists jumped right in and got down to the business of painting the most prominent color of the animal's fur, while others preferred to start with the facial features. I encouraged one person to mix a color for the body of her German Shepard.

One of our artists spent most of her time outlining the features of her white cat and chose to limit her palette. She simply used black paint to suggest texture on the cat's coat. She carried on and used black for the front paws in shadow. The cat's tail saw the beginnings of Pointillism that had time permitted would have been an awesome technique to finish with.

                    

My volunteer's Mother chose to paint her white dog brown. Personally, I find it most challenging to paint white or black animals. Either way, there needs to be subtle shading using light or dark grays to achieve the desired effect.

Here are two kitten examples where one artist painted the animal all in brown as if to avoid painting the eyes, while the other artist was inspired to start her portrait with the eyes. Next time I need to encourage usage of the large mixing area in the center of the palette!