The creative journey of an artist inspired by animals and life by the sea

Tuesday, September 24, 2013

Suli and Alex Watercolor is finished!

FINAL PORTRAIT

First stage with background and masking

I just completed this watercolor of an older dog named Suli and a 17 year old cat named Alex.  This painting is a good example of how I go about my watercolor portraits.  After taking close to 75 reference photos, I created my design on Crescent watercolor board and began by masking out the animals.  I don't always start this way, but in this case I wanted to work on the background first.  After showing the clients the painting, they did have a few minor changes.  The tail on Alex needed to be a little longer and the eyes on Suli needed to be "beadier" according to the owner...funny description!  I made the changes and I hope they are happy with the final result.
Adding detail to animals
Client wants tail longer on cat and eyes "beadier" on dog:)