A border terrier painting in progress
Poppy
20×16 inch oil on stretched canvas
Poppy, a border terrier, lives in the Lake District and does a lot of walking with her people. And what a gorgeous place to do it too! They wanted a portrait of her with her favourite toy on one of their favourite walks.
Poppy Stage 1
I’ve sketched Poppy on the canvas and used burnt sienna as the colour for the under painting. Then I worked in the darks, especially in her face. There’s quite a bit of detail already finished in her face. Now for the first of the colour layers starting at the top with the sky, a very pale blue.
Poppy Stage 2
Bringing colour to the mountains behind her, lots of violets and blues. I’ll start on her ball too as this is another part of the painting that has violet and purple tones. I make a start on the hill sides behind her and add some lilac tones to the shadows.I’ve also added more details to her face.
Poppy Stage 3
The hill sides behind her are full of greens and golds and on the slope on the left has lots of red and purple. The light catches the long grasses just behind her giving them a wonderful glow.
Poppy Stage 4
Now for all that green in the grass around her. This is a tricky passage of work. Too much green can be overwhelming so the grass here is broken up with several different colours and some of the under painting shows through in places as well. I’ve also done more work on Poppy herself.
Poppy Finished
The final stage, adding the details to Poppy, especially her face, finishing off her ball, a bit more work on the grass around her and finally, lightening the mountains in the distance a little and she’s finished.
A close up of her face….
a close up of the canvas…
