Start of a new portrait

Keira
A Work in Progress
Copyright Laura Hardie 2009

My next portrait is of two dogs – a Springer Spaniel and a crossbreed, although we’re not sure what cross exactly. Her owners affectionately refer to her as a ‘Heinz 57’ and have to admit that was a new one to me.

I’ve made a start on Keira (the Heinz 57) simply because she is on the left of the composition and I like to work left to right. This way I can avoid ‘smudging’ my work. At this stage I’m simply laying down my base colours and building up my layers to create depth, working light to dark. The ear is pretty much finished and I’m now jumping between the eyes, nose and head working a little bit here and a little bit there until it all comes together. Still a way to go before that happens though.