September 9, 2008
Cocoa, Bernese Mountain Dog portrait
When my client asked me to do a portrait of this beautiful Bernese Mountain Dog for a hostess gift (for an annual stay in a house on the beach, in case you are wondering what kind of invitation merits a portrait! ;-), the inevitable question came up: “Black and white or color?”
The issue was “how well would the brown against black markings show up in black and white?”. It isn’t impossible to do mixed colors in black and white, as you can see by the Beagle, Doberman Pinscher, Papillon, Rottweiler mix and other portraits I’ve done in graphite. But I couldn’t make up my own mind, much less help my client decide, so I promised to do quick sketches in each to see the result.
The sketches were convincing: Color won easily! It wasn’t just Cocoa’s honey-brown markings that glowed in color, but also the blue highlights where her smooth black forehead reflected the sky. And don’t you know — her cocoa-tinted ruff and feathered fur answered the question of how she got her name! Turns out some of the white on her chest was more like coffee-with-cream in the shadows, in keeping with her coffeehouse color scheme.
So, I finished the portrait in color: A watercolor under-painting finished with colored pencil. Here’s a close-up detail, if you’d like to see more (roll your mouse over the full-size image).
Beautiful dog and gorgeous portrait!
Comment by Flickr: kenskritters — September 9, 2008 @ 2:20 am