Two New Paintings With Petzazz

I don't always mention it in my blog posts, but these watercolor on Yupo paintings are my "Paintings with Petzazz". A term I coined when I needed a catchier description than "interpretive style".

Yupo is a synthetic paper made of polypropylene. The slick, bright white surface allows the paint to flow and blend differently than on traditional watercolor paper and because the paint/water doesn't soak into the paper, the colors remain vibrant. Interesting watermarks, swirls and blobs are also part of the Yupo effect. Lifting paint off is very easy - all it takes is a damp brush. Corrections are difficult though, as an obvious harsh edge is left where the paint has been moved around. It takes some planning and knowledge of how different paint colors work together, but I like the spontaneity of the process - a lot of it is pushing paint around and then letting it decide what it wants to do. Yupo is a very interesting surface and I really enjoy working with it. You can read more about Paintings with Petzazz on this page of my web site.

It's always a challenge to capture the vibrancy of the paint in the scans of the finished work. These two were especially difficult, I just couldn't get the green backgrounds to look as brilliant as the originals, but this is pretty close.


Bruno, 8" x 8"


Floyd, 8" x 8"

These two dogs belong to the same family. In discussion with my clients, we decided that having two separate paintings was best. I generally use dark blues and/or purples for dark colored dogs, so that was an easy choice for Bruno, the pit bull mix. Since both portraits would be hanging together, lavender/light purple made the most sense for Floyd, the Weimaraner. My clients chose green for the background. They liked the green in this painting I did of my dog Patch.



These are the reference photos I took of each dog:

You'll notice that I used a bit of artistic license on Floyd's portrait - his poor eye was infected and squinty when I took the photos of him.



As I always do when I have the opportunity to take my own reference photos, I took many digital photos of each dog, then chose 3 or 4 (of each) that I liked best. Then I asked my clients to chose their favorite photo of each dog from my choices. This process works very well, since I select photos that I know will work for the portrait and the client chooses the photo that best captures their pet.

I can (and do) work from client-supplied photos, but whenever possible, I take my own. This allows me to get to know the pet, see their personality for myself and to have an assortment of photos that have the detail I want/need for the portrait.

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Day Trip to San Francisco

John & I decided to spin down to San Francisco for the day to see if we could find the worm-eating warbler that's been hanging out in Ferry Park near Pier 1. No luck on that count, but we still had a nice trip and got good looks at a pair of varied thrushes. Also got brief looks at a Townsend's warbler and white-throated sparrow. We wanted to try out our new Canon lens too, so that came along for the ride. It's an EF 100-400mm lens with image stabilizer. We didn't really put the image stabilizing capability to the test, and it's a rather big/heavy lens for basic photography, but we needed to get some practice using it.

It was sunny and beautiful in the city. My friend Laurie and two of her dogs met us at the park and then, for lunch, we walked to a nearby Taqueria with outdoor seating. I've blogged about Laurie's dogs before and here's a photo of Jalu the lurcher that I took today.


And a couple of other photos:


Western Gull Outside the Taqueria; Bay Bridge in Background


Rock Dove (Pigeon) with Tortilla Chip

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I'm on a Roll! Another Finished Portrait

This is Chewie, a yorkie (Yorkshire terrier).

Ink on scratchboard, 6" x 6"



And the reference photos:




Next portrait on tap is a handsome dark chocolate colored Pit Bull Terrier. I've already completed the portrait of his buddy, a Weimaraner. These portraits are in my "Paintings with Petzazz" style - the vibrant watercolors on Yupo. Stay tuned, I'll post them both soon.

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Reina the Chihuahua - New Portrait

I recently finished this portrait of Reina and delivered it earlier today.
Ink on Scratchboard, 5" x 5.5"



Below are the color & greyscale photos I used for reference. The brown area at the bottom is part of her leg, so I replaced that with black which would represent her body in that area.



Reina was part of a four chihuahua portrait that I did a couple of years ago. Since that portrait was finished, my clients added 2 more chihuahuas to their family and wanted individual portraits of the 2 new dogs and new portraits of the original four. Of course, I was more than happy to oblige - repeat business is a very good thing! For the new portraits of the original four, we decided to use photos that showed different head angles, so Reina's new portrait is a 3/4 profile.

This is the original 4 dog portrait in ink on scratchboard:

One of them is a chihuahua/yorkie terrier mix.


The portraits of the 2 new chihuahuas, completed last year, also ink on scratchboard:



And a photo of all 6:

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