How to Paint Dogs Course

[nolan]

You are doing great Bill, the face is looking fabulous

I would like to see more hair detail in the chest area

[Bill76434]

  Mary Lou and Emma Lee

[bmquirk7895]

I finally finished the Retriever.  I painted him in oils, since that is all I have. 

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[njnjgirl]

He looks terrific!

[bmquirk7895]

Thanks Mary Lou.

[nolan]

Looking great Bob - just look at those reflections in the eye

What is bothering me are the high contrast lines around the eye and between the eyes. You would either need to go over them with a light colour to tone down or add an inbetween colour in other places to balance the difference in tonal value out

[bmquirk7895]

Thanks Nolan for the feedback.  Souns good.  I see what you mean.

[Emilie.B]

Just finished the collie and it's in my gallery. Welcoming all constructive comments. Has not received any varnish yet as the store was in shortage and I had to order from a store much further away...

I realize the right eye is a bit small and the reflections in the eyes are a bit too opaque/bright, but once the paint was on, its fate was sealed ! I struggled to make the white hair look realistic particularly in the neck. I particularly like the mouth, it looks so real !

For the labrador, I plan on using a retarder in the paint to slow the drying time and ease blending a little. Eventually, I want to use oil as well in this course.

[nolan]

To add your photo here, you copy and paste the BBC Embed code then you get this:

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[nolan]

You have done a great job with your Collie Emilie

The reflection in the eye is not too bright at all

With the white hair, what you want to do next time is start with a darker inside hair colour. That will give you the contrast you are looking for

[Emilie.B]

I aim at becoming good enough to maybe take commissions. Back to practice ! A cat course in acrylics or oils would be nice. ( I don't think there is one ?)

[Emilie.B]

Can anyone tell me what filbert brush can hold enough paint and yet retain its sharp edge for doing the "defining" part of the fur ? I'm struggling as all my brushes tend to render clumps of hairs that are either too big or not subtle at all.

[njnjgirl]

Emilie, I think your dog looks terrific!  Well done!

[nolan]

You will find that you need to replace filbert brushes often as then tend to loose their chisel point after a while. If you are battling with the filbert then you can also try using the fine round or a rigger brush

[Emilie.B]

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