The Composite Dog

[meerkat]

Hi all,

this was a Christmas commission I did last year. It's a German Shepherd Dog and was done as a gift for the mother in law of my client. He sent me the photos of the dog which passed away some time ago. When I talked to my client at the phone he said to me: "Please paint the photo with the ball because I like the pose of the dog". Of course it should be done without the ball! My customer could only offer me these photos and how to paint a nice painting of the shepherd dog was my problem. So I first had to create a suitable reference image by myself using Photoshop. I don't know what would I do without this great tool! The different steps you can see on the images below. I started with image 2 changing the right foreleg a bit, inserted the muzzle of image 3 and created a new left foreleg by using the foreleg of image 4. At the end the composite reference image worked well for painting (image 5). The painting was done in acrylic on canvas and is 12 x 16 inches (30 x 40 cm). I over painted the frame with the same colours I used for the painting itself. Comments and critiques are welcome.

Ruth

Image 1: Acrylic painting of the shepherd dog
http://www.wetcanvas.com/Community/images/25-Feb-2004/28963-codog1.jpg

Image 2: Starting reference image
http://www.wetcanvas.com/Community/images/25-Feb-2004/28963-codog2.jpg

Image 3: I took the muzzle of the left image ...
http://www.wetcanvas.com/Community/images/25-Feb-2004/28963-codog3.jpg

Image 4: ... and the foreleg of this image
http://www.wetcanvas.com/Community/images/25-Feb-2004/28963-codog4.jpg

Image 5: Composite reference image
http://www.wetcanvas.com/Community/images/25-Feb-2004/28963-codog5.jpg

[Cat Lover]

Hello Ruth, It's a lovely composition and the idea of painting over the frame works beautifully.I do feel that there is not enough flesh in the thigh of the hindleg. I was amazed at how little flesh or muscle there was on the hindleg in the photos but there appears to be a little more than in the painting. He must have been quite young when the photos were taken as the muzzle shows no signs of greying, so that youth rather than age would account for the lack of muscle. I think you have made a wonderful job of creating one lovely picture from four different photos. Well done. :clap: :clap:

[shedreamsbig]

Ruth,

This painting is Awsome! My Boyfriend loves it!! He and Myself are totally impressed!!

Very Very Nice work!!

Christine

[MonicaB]

Wow, what a challenge you set for yourself (or rather, the client set for you!). Sounds like you had to do as much work before you started painting as you did once you started. Good job.

[crazeejumper]

Nice job using all these photos! Sounds like it was pretty tedious. The painting turned out great! :clap:

[meerkat]

Thank you Elaine, Christine, Monica and Connie for your nice comments.

Elaine ... I think the shepherd wasn't so young when the photos were taken (about 7-8 years). He became very old for a shepherd (14 years). My client could not tell me much about the dog because he did not know him personally. So I can't say why there is not much flesh on his hindleg.

Monica, Connie ... yes, it was much computer work to do before I could start to paint. It took about 3 hours. I did three different layouts and showed them to my husband. Togehter we discussed about the different versions and than I decided which one I take for painting.

Ruth

[sahara]

Hi Ruth,

Really great editing you have done with photoshop there. I'm still learning basic andjustments like, such as contrast, cropping and resizing.

Its such a massive program sometimes I don't know where to begin.

A lovely painting of a lovely dog with difficult reference photos. I like the way you have painted over the frame, i haven't seen that before.
:clap:

Well done
Sarah

[meerkat]

Sarah, thank you very much for your nice reply. Photoshop is a compact program with many possibilities. I started the same way like you. First I tried the basic tools by using a simple book about the program. Then I bought a special digital photography and image editing magazine for some month and tried to do the workshops. This was very useful.

Ruth

[CraftyHopo]

I just love this one! What a challenge for you with sooo many reference photo's! I bet you wondered how on earth you would pull it all together with chopping and changing the pics.

Well done on an excellent painting! :clap:

[meerkat]

Paul thank you very much for your nice comment. When I got the photos of the shepherd dog I first was a little bit frustrated and considered for a long time how to change and rearrange the photos but I like to do image editing and at the end it was a lot of fun.

Ruth