I’m starting a portrait of Zelda, a Top Twenty Doberman. Commissioned by Doberman breeder Susan R. as a gift to Zelda's owner Diane.
This is the first in-progress picture of Zelda’s portrait, colored pencil on green Canson paper. I started with her tail....
But before I began the hands-on work on the portrait, Diane and I had to decide on the overall design, size, and colors. I walk my client through those decisions, guided by their wishes and preferences.
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This is the reference photo of Zelda that Diane wanted me to use.
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At first Diane thought she might like a mountain scene.
I pulled out some reference photos of the Rocky mountains from among the thousands of photos I’ve taken on my travels. Cut out Zelda from the background in Photoshop and began playing around with different mountain backgrounds….
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The challenge is to make sure Zelda stands out against the background. In each of the 3 mountain layouts it was difficult to capture her entire topline as a single unbroken line from tail to ears without being interrupted by the detail of the scenery behind her.
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I had suggested one option would be to have Zelda’s Top Twenty ribbon behind her instead of a landscape.
Diane said yes to that. She photographed the ribbon for me and I created several different versions of a layout with the rosette behind Zelda’s head and the ribbon tails flowing out behind her. (Crude Photoshop design.)
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In the end we both agreed Zelda’s beautiful structure on a plain green background was the best. Just a slight suggestion of the grassy lawn. Anything else took attention away from Zelda.
I made one more suggestion of a sprinkling of flowers behind her, in the colors of the Top Twenty ribbon. But even those were distracting.
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The final decision was just Zelda on a simple green background, with grass under her. I made a detailed drawing on “Light Green” Canson paper and got to work.
Photo taken in my studio with Zelda’s photo on the monitor.
“Zelda”
BISS TT GCHS CH Lookout Tawee v. Radiant CGC, WAC
in progress
🎨 Prismacolor pencil on Canson Mi-Teintes paper.
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