Step 14 final step, painting is finished!

I added the red glazes and this was taken outside in the shade on a sunny day. I also signed the painting. I don't do that until I am totally finished. I am thrilled with how this came out. Now it just has to dry for several more weeks before I can ship it. I hope you enjoyed watching my process. Let me know if you have any questions!

Step 13

I fixed her tag. Much happier. Worked on her belly, adding a nice roundness to it. Made her right foot a bit smaller and left foot a bit larger. added more detail in the grass. Now I start adding some glazes. I thin down my oil paint with a mixture of stand oil, damar varnish and mineral spirits. I only add a touch of color and thin it way down. You can see I've added a bit of yellow and greens to her coat to make it blend well with the grass. Later, I'll add a bit of red the same way. I also lightened up the inside of her ears. Almost there!

Step 12

Legs in front are coming together. I added some flowers to the grass. Her tummy is looking too flat. I'll have to adjust that! Still adding more and more layers to her coat.

Step 11

I have started adding more dark thin strokes that will go under her fur. It's a brindle coat with all sorts of browns and siennas and not really easy to portray. I'll get it slowly to look the way I want. I also added more grass in front of her and beside her. Painting grass is really fun. I often paint with both hands so it looks more irregular. I still haven't got the tummy and back leg and foot to look how I want it. Bulldogs love to lie down with their back legs out straight. It doesn't look too comfortable! Also added more highlights.

Step 10

I added more dark colors to mark the shadows recede. I'm not crazy with how the tag looks. It's too thick. I went to the pet store and took a couple of snapshots for reference. Tooth is all gone! Mouth more refined.

Step 9

More color on her legs, deeper color under her body. Need to delete that tooth!

Step 8

I go over the darker areas with small strokes of lighter colors to create a nice curve where her many folds of skin are. The body gets some attention and I define the belly folds. There are so many! LOL!! I think I can see a tooth in the photo (it's good to check with the owner because it ended up just being her gums, so I took it out later). More detail on the tongue.

Step 7

I think the shadows need to be deepened on her forehead so I also add some browns and sienna. I've added a bit more to her fur areas for shadows that will also be built up over layers. Her tongue has some blue brown added to deepen the shadow.

Step 6

As you can see, I've added some more of the dark areas. I also like to add some depth to the white areas so I've added some pinks, yellows and blues to her forehead and muzzle. The nose has gotten darker and more defined and I've added more color to her tongue and gums.

Step 5

I get leery of all that brown in the background and wonder if I will ever be able to fill it with grass, so I squeezed out some yellow, black and several greens and blues and go to town. Some people don't realize that a nice lemon yellow and black makes a beautiful set of greens. Mix yellows and blues and you get many many more. I also include some blues and blacks in the grass to indicate shadows behind the grass. It's far from being done, but that brown is not a solid block any more. All of her wrinkles on her forehead and nose are also blown out to white in my reference photo because it was taken in the bright sunshine. So I have to try and create what they really look like. Lots of back and forth on these! Then I realized she had a spot of brown on the top of her head from another photo. Might as well indicate that too! Added some more dark blue pink grays inside her mouth.

Step 3, lips, tongue nose pink!

Next steps were to mix up some nice pinks with alizarin crimson, some white and blue. Dragging the gray of the pencil around with a bit of turp, helps to put the lines I drew into a bit of gray that I can use for guides and add to the under layer. I also went in with some more whites over the grays and pinks. The owner wanted me to add a collar and a heart shaped tag that wasn't on the original photo either. Happy to comply! More reference needed.

Oil Painting of an English Bulldog Step 2

The next step is to throw in a nice underlayer. She had lots of tan and brown on her, and the background was to be grass, so I used raw umber and burnt siena. This gets the canvas all colored up so you can continue and not be afraid of a big blank white canvas staring at you. I really enjoy most of the steps. I kept the client updated as I went, so this is usually the hardest one for them to look at. They must cringe and say "I thought she could paint?" But thankfully it is laid down with lots of turpentine so it dries pretty quickly and off you can go.

Step by Step to Paint an English Bulldog

I received a commission to paint a beautiful English Bulldog about 6 weeks ago. I've been really busy ever since. I've been wanting to post some of my steps so I'm doing it now!

It was to be in oil paint so my first step was to collect as much reference material on her as possible, and find other reference on specific parts like bulldog eyes, which were blown out in the photo. You find something to work with in all cases. So I had about 8 photos to work with. I started with a quick pencil sketch on the canvas. It ended up being too far to the right, so I carefully erased and redrew my sketch. This is what I started with.

Close-ups of my Boston Terrier

I changed it to "Cudleigh"

I don't want anyone to pronounce the "h" in "Chudleigh" so I'm changing it to something that always rhymes with "cud-ly"! This bad boy is all done and now I'm not sure what to draw next. He was just so cute that he'll be hard to match. Time to start going through my reference material and see what comes up. I still need to draw my little Cleopatra, just have to find the perfect photo of her.

We have 2 feet of snow on the ground and of course that make for 5 foot snow banks all around the place. Please be careful…especially if you see me pulling out of my driveway!

Hmmm, maybe a Boston Terrier or a Black Lab pup? Suggestions?