We just started 2 weeks of learning a bit about painting furry friends. This is Jasper, a dog portrait I am doing studies for. After transferring the sketch onto Arches 140 lb paper, I decided to try an experiment. Before painting, I covered the entire background with gum arabic straight from the bottle, to see if it would enhance the softness of the fur around the edges while masking out the background. I also put a bit on the hilight of the nose, hoping to get a nice hilight without having to soften edges when I'm finished.
The gum arabic dries quickly with a sheen, so it's not hard to see where I put it on. I also put miskit on some fine hairs on the ears, whiskers, and fur.
I am using only four colors for this painting: Quin gold, quin burnt orange, a dab of coral, and French ultramarine. The first painting step was to wet the entire dog and put in a basecoat of quin gold. While that was still wet, I added quin burnt orange in areas that will be darker: under the chin, shadows of the face and eyese, under the ears. I let that dry. Then I put in a second coat, starting with quin burnt orange with a little coral. I added a bit of French ultramarine mixed with quin burnt orange to the darker areas, deepening the shadows.
OK, he looks like a zombie puppy right now, but I am pretty satisfied with the results so far.
If you are doing a dark animal, begin with a wash of blues with some pinks added. With subsequent coats, it will become very dark without becoming dull.
Next week we will put in the eyes and tighten up some of the shapes in the fur and face.
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