Animal Portraits Revisited

I used my birthday gift to attend a 2.5-hr wood burning (pyrography) class in Bothell with my daughter. Here's the resulting portrait of our two dogs on a cutting board (a.k.a. chartcuterie). The trick to tracing both straight and curved lines is to move the tip of the tool slowly and steadily across the surface. You must get used to the wood grain interrupting the flow. Shading, as with drawing and painting, is another technique to master.

The class was hosted at Piper (boutique) in Bothell, WA with instructor Crystal Bailar. It was a relaxing class and they served wine and snacks. It afforded me the opportunity to try new techniques. We used locally sourced maple which had some beautiful grain. I almost wish that I had done a mountain landscape since the clouds would have come ready made!

My Daughter's Landscape

I probably should have traded boards with my daughter as her wood had no visible grain pattern.

Oscar, Violet, Tanner, and Chachi

My brother and I share a common interest in painting animals, landscapes, and sports figures in different media. We encourage each other by reviewing and commenting on our work and challenging ourselves to try other media and techniques. Some day I will try Paint 3D like my brother’s ~mixed-media electronic drawings. Recently, my brother completed 3 more cat portraits, adding Oscar, Violet, and Tanner to the one of Chachi from my previous post. He then used Zazzle to create a throw pillow to match his new sofa.

If you struggle with drawing, try tracing a photograph using a printout sized to your paper (stretched canvas, or even a cutting board), using carbon paper and a stylus or even a graphite pencil. The amount of detail is up to you. This method will help with proportions and for portraits get the facial features right.

It’s still fun to practice drawing, and getting past such hurdles will enable you to focus on learning to paint with a brush, a stick of chalk pastel, or a wood burning tool. There are many techniques to learn, all which require practice to master. Always try out new tools or tips on a scrap piece of wood first.

Averil by Cheryl Schmitz

As you progress your own style will emerge. The thing I’ve been working on lately is editing. I also want to be more creative about my color schemes and backgrounds. Don’t be afraid to use your imagination and expression to interpret what you see. Get inspired by studying the artwork of others. You may copy a landscape, for example, from a photograph you took with your camera or assemble your own composition from individual trees or mountain shapes.

Aya by Cheryl Schmitz

My colleague from Paws with Cause, resident artist Cheryl Schmitz, gets creative with her color schemes, making beautifully artistic renditions of these shelter animals. Also notice the editing and how well-chosen her background colors enhance the portrait.

Disney's Tramp Pumpkin

Golden Retriever Pumpkin

Collecting various examples will spark your imagination and enable you to visualize and arrange your own compositions. I challenged myself this Halloween by copying two dog portraits and actively demonstrated my pumpkin carving skills at the Everett Farmers' Market. I also found that a linoleum cutter worked really well for scraping,

When pumpkin carving, use a washable marker to sketch the line to guide your cuts. This is certainly an opportunity to edit down to the essential details. I've been experimenting with my range of values through scraping off the skin and exposing various depths. This is also where you can develop your understanding of positive and negative space. This  year I was afforded the opportunity to teach an online pumpkin carving class. I reimagined the Husky mascot from a previous year and also used scraping for the cheeks and jeweled beads for the eyes.

I want to finish with another rendition of a Bryce and Jeju portrait. While in Palm Springs last year the pair was watching me from inside a bedroom window and we captured them in a photo I used to paint a watercolor portrait. The proportions look a little off, but realize that Bryce is on the bed and Jeju is standing on the floor at the wall in the middle ground. The inside, bottom half of the picture is less-focused, in shadow, and the dogs' silhouettes appear highlighted by the sunlight streaming in the window. I like the contrast to the vivid outside landscape. I probably should have edited out the wires around the telephone pole, but then it would have read as a tree. Maybe I could have removed it altogether! See what I mean about editing?!