meet Molly !

"molly" 11.5"x15.5" Terry Ludwig And Girault pastels on Sennelier La Carte

Meet Molly!  This is my friend's dog at Frame Up II, where I work. She asked me to paint Molly and she will be hung up in the shop for all to see. No pressure, right? Wow! Black dogs are really hard to paint! When you look at them , of course you think "all black", right?  I decided not to get flustered and took a bunch of photos of Molly. I have painted other animals and it's really important for me to get to know them, their personality.

Molly at the frame shop

Then I  started sketching her, I really want to capture her personality and a likeness. Look how shiny her coat is…. not all black…. do you you see the grays and blues?

in my sketch book

Molly is really a sweet dog, part cocker spaniel part labrador… we think. Her coat is very wavy and shiny.

here is some of my progression

  The color is not good in these pics. I used a dark blue/gray Sennelier La Carte paper. It's my paper of choice for painting animals. I always start with the eyes…. do a basic sketch of the head and start laying in the darks. I do not use black pastel! I use Terry Ludwig's darkest violet and sometimes a dark blue. Next come some of the mid tones (Girault neutrals and friends by Richard McKinley) and highlights are last. 

I sent Molly's owner a pic and she couldn't wait to see the real painting. Frame is ordered and soon she will be hanging in the frame shop! I'm happy!

Things I love about summer

"CT countryside" 8"x10" pastel on Pastel premier 600

In GA the kids have gone back to school. But summer is not over and it is quite hot outside. I saw a blog post of Karen Margulis' about continuing to enjoy the summer until it is really over. I decided to take her advice and paint one painting each day for a week about things I love about summer. I tried not to spend more than 30 minutes on each painting. I wanted them to be fun! No pressure…. it's still summer!

The above painting is actually the last in the series. My July trips to CT to visit with my family always involves driving around looking around for photo opportunities for my paintings.

I've included here photos of the progression of the painting. I used a blue violet nupastel to lay in the darks and went over it with an alcohol wash with a brush and then layered in the pastel. I used a Pastel Premier 600 paper , which is finer than I like to use…. I tend to be a little heavy handed with the pastels , so I filled up the tooth of the paper fast. 

"coneflower" 8"x10" pastel on Uart 500

In my courtyard.

"beachside at Edisto" 8"x10" pastel on Uart 500

The house on the left was where we stayed on our summer trip Edisto Island.

"nest" 8"x8"pastel on Pastel Premier 320 Italian clay

trimming up a shrub in my courtyard I found this abandoned nest. 

"beach" 8"x10"pastel on Uart 500 with a watercolor underpainting.

For this painting, I used a reference photo from a previous trip to the Florida Panhandle. To me, summer is not complete with out a beach vacation. 

"coneflower" 6"x6"pastel on UART 500

I don't know about you, but cornflowers are one of my favorite summer flowers!

"queen anne's lace" 9"x12" on UART 500

These are everywhere in the summer . I had to try my hand at painting them and actually spent more than the 30 minutes to get them right. 

So that's it for this week, already thinking about what I will paint next week. You can follow along with my paintings on FB. Just search - Bonnie Morgan Hyde fine art. Please "like" the page if you would like to follow along with my daily art postings.

Enjoy the rest of your summer!