During our trip to Italy last week, I came across the cutest little puppy at the breakfast room in our hotel. Not a fan of dogs in restaurants but this was was one exception. Tan and curly hair like a lamb and ever so tiny that I even nearly trampled on her when she managed to escape from the owner’s bag! Of course owner was embarrassed and apologized, but when she put her back in she forgot to close another flap, doggy managed to escape again. Doggy’s name was Sole which means sun in Italian, how sweet! I asked around my friends on FB what breed the dog was when I showed them the photo of her, and she turns out to be a Poodle but not purebred. Some even refer to such dogs as Doodle!
Pencil Sketch
And of course I had to paint about this! As in my last blog, I did mention that it has been a while since painting about dogs, and here was a great chance to. Pencil sketch first on a blank page of my Strathmore’s MIxed Media sketchbook, and look how teeny weeny the doggy is!
Background with Ecoline
I was looking to try out something other than acrylic and yet wanted a vivid background. Enter some Ecoline inks. Like watercolors, they are based with gum arabic but instead of pigments the colors are derived from dyes. The dyes, however, are not lightfast so best used in sketchbooks than be exposed to light when the colors fade over time.
Painting with Oil Pastels
For the subject, I worked with both kinds of oil pastels. The non-watersoluble ones obviously resist water but create interesting effects when wet mediums are layered on top. Sort of like waxy crayons underneath watercolors. I used JAXON’s oil pastels first to sketch the hair a bit, and also some neon pink on the outfit. The rest was then painted over with water-soluble pastels by Derwent’s Inktense or Caran d’Ache Neocolor II. To add texture, I dabbed on some Clear Granular Gel on the dog and glitter glue below the eyelashes. Some gel pen work for the small details and I was good to go!
Not one of my best work but I had a lot of fun experimenting with various mediums mentioned. Also wanted to quickly illustrate how tiny this doggy was and my startled reaction when I nearly trampled over her! A rough idea for now, but who knows in the near future I might like to create a proper painting of this. For now, I’m still at awe over the little doggy and would definitely like to include dogs in my paintings more!
My Kawaii Quarter 