Saturday, October 29, 2011

Morning Light - Chow Painting


I captured this photo of a beautiful golden red chow at the local dog show back in May 2011, and have been staring at it ever since.  I love this boy's face, but hate the background.  And because the morning light was hitting him in the face, he looked a bit "washed out".  So the photo isn't publishable "as is".

I finally decided to do a digital painting of him.  Below is the end result:


I painted this digital painting in Corel Painter Essentials. First I edited the photo in Paint Shop Pro to increase color saturation, and increase the red tones in his fur. Then I replaced the background with a previously painted background.  Once I had the background in place and the colors more like I wanted, I opened the edited photo in Corel and began the painting process.  I used a smeary round oil brush to do this painting.  The original photo was left beneath the canvas and was set to approx. 30% opacity during the first part of the painting when I blocked in the colors and shapes.  Then I turned off the original photo, and just worked directly on the new canvas to finish adding details, specifically the nose, mouth and eyes.

I've title the painting "Morning Light" and it's available for sale on prints, cards, and other gifts on my website.

--Jai

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