June 27, 2017

Painting Pup Portraits in Acrylics

This past week my sis invited me to her house for a painting day. It was my first time painting pup portraits with acrylics, and it was a lot of fun.

Before we starting painting though, I had to get some kisses from my sister's adorable pup Stella.

She wasn't totally thrilled with being a model for my photography, but she looks so darn cute on this turquoise chair... I couldn't resist snapping some pics of her! (Because: turquoise. And what's better than dogs + turquoise!?)
Name that movie! (Note: quote is slightly tweaked)

Anyway, after some kisses from Stella, we got down to painting. I, of course, attempted to paint Rita. It came out a little wonky... her nose is a bit too long or something's off a bit, but I like it.

In the past, I've painted with watercolors, and I usually try to make the subject look as close to reality as possible, so it was fun to be a bit more loose and just paint for plain ol' fun.

I also painted a random little Westie from a photo I found online. Again... it's not great (btw, both of these look a lot better in the photos than they do in real life...) but, again... it was fun!

One thing that's great about acrylics is being able to paint over your boo-boos, and I did A LOT of that with the Westie! (With watercolors, if you really mess up, you're stuck.)

Also, my sis took a painting class recently and the instructor said it's important to use good quality paints for watercolors, but with acrylics you can get away with cheaper ones, so that's another good thing. (Of course... with watercolors, you water them down so they last a long time, so there's that...)

Finally, both the paintings above are done on scraps of cardboard - so no worries about how much "good paper"/canvas costs and whether you might "ruin" it. For watercolors, you really need good paper, so that's definitely another bonus to painting with acrylics.

You should try it! Just for fun! 

(Rita was thoroughly unimpressed with my work...)
"Can I eat it?"

Book News!
Speaking of fun... I have a new Fido-friendly fiction book coming out and this one is really just for fun. (I don't know about you, but I need some fun these days.)

If you're signed up for my author newsletter, you'll already know I was hitting folks up for ideas for the title or tag line (and offered a giveaway!). If you're not signed up but want to get book news first - you can sign up on the right hand bar of my blog home page, or here.

More book news will be coming as it gets closer.... Don't have an exact release date yet, but hoping for late September or maybe October. We'll see how it goes!

I'll be taking a break next week July 4th holiday.
Happy 4th to those of you who'll be celebrating it!

Thanks to BlogPaws for hosting Wordless Wednesday! Stop by their site to check out all of the other blogs in the hop.

43 comments:

  1. You do a good job with the painting. My mom can't even draw a stick person, let along paint anything! Happy 4th of July weekend!

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  2. I'm so excited about your new book. I'll have to sign up for the newsletter. I love the pup pics and can't even imagine something I painted turning out so good. Rita looks awesome!

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    1. Thanks! And I'm excited for you to read the new book! When I have an advance copy ready I'll be in touch!

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  3. Great pictures. Good luck with your books.

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  4. I wish I had even the tiniest bit of talent, but when it comes to drawing/painting I'm hopeless.

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    1. I always wish I was as good as my sis - she's amazing!

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  5. I am SO excited you finished your new story!!!!! I can't wait to see where it goes!

    Happy 4th!

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    1. I can't wait for you to read the rest. I'll email you and see if you want an advance copy. :)

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    2. You KNOW I want an advance copy! Oh, boy! Oh, boy! :-)

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    3. (How did you do bold type? Didn't realize you could do that. Assuming you used HTML? Will have to experiment. Learn something new every day!) Anyway, yay!

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  6. Those are cute. And the cardboard is a great idea. Sadly, that is all way beyond anything I could even attempt.

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    1. Yeah, I thought the cardboard idea was genius. When I do watercolors I'm always worried about ruining my 'good' paper!

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  7. You did a great job! I did a sip n paint when I was at BlogPaws, and that was fun and the painting didn't come out half bad.

    Can't wait to hear about the new book...I hope it's the one I'm thinking of. :-)

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    1. I saw those 'sunset' sip 'n paint pics and they were fabulous! Looked like fun. And I'm sure some sipping might improve my painting. :)

      Yes... it's the one you are thinking of! :)

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  8. Well, I think they look pretty good! I think I have only done one acrylic painting of Mini; it's hanging on the fridge. I have also helped out with a painting of her. If you go to our blog and search "acrylic" they should pop up. They aren't that great, but they are cute :)

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    1. I just went to check those out and they're so cute! You did a great job!

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  9. Love your paintings! You and your sisters have so much creative fun together :-)

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  10. I know I know Titanic! Mom only knows because of Crusoe the Celebrity Dachshund. Oh and turquoise is her favorite color too. What's with that? Love Dolly PeeS: A very good likeness of Rita!

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    1. YES!! Winner!! (You are the only one who got that so far.)

      Dolly - you would look great in turquoise!

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  11. Great job! our mom is not artistic that way at all!
    hugs
    Hazel & Mabel

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    1. I bet she's artistic in other ways. It's fun to be creative now and then!

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  12. My sisters and I never do anything creative together. Mostly we just shop, drink wine, and talk. LOL One of our grandmothers used to always have us do crafts though, and we talked about scrapbooking once..... :)
    Looking forward to the new book (there's sure nothing wrong with fun!), and have a very Happy 4th!

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    1. We love to craft together! And shop, and drink and talk - but mostly we like to craft. :)

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  13. I attempted to paint Bentley at one of those Wine & Paint studios. I will leave the art work to my husband from now on! LOL!

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    1. Oh, is your hubby an artist? My hubby painted one painting once... and it was pretty good! Hopefully once he's retired he'll paint with me - but we'll have to see....

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  14. Exciting times! Make sure you celebrate this 4th of July. Have a good one!

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    1. We actually might just lay low on the 4th, but there will probably be yummy foods so that's always a good celebration in my book!

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  15. What a fun day and fabulous job! Congrats on your new book

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  16. Congrats on the paintings and the new book! Personally I think you did a remarkable job especially with Rita. Having tried my hand at watercolor (and poorly at that), I know all too well about the challenges with working in that medium. Bravo!

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    1. Thank you! It is challenging, isn't it? I wish I had more time to practice it! Feel like I'd need to do it practically every day to get to be any good.

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    1. Thanks. Jean had an old picture frame from a yard sale ( of course) so I framed the one of Rita.

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  18. love how they came out and you cracked me up with "paint me like one of your French girls" BOL!! Have a great holiday!!! DakotasDen

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  19. You created some great paintings. I laughed at the caption in Stella's photo. That's hilarious.

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  20. I brought water colors on board. I really should take some time to paint. But all the spare time I'm supposed to have living on a boat hasn't quite materialized. :)

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  21. hello pooch smooches its dennis the vizsla dog hay wot a nice paynting of pritty rita!!! and i am glad things ternd owt better for yoo than for that other persun wot paynted sumbuddy like wun of those french girls!!! at leest nobuddy ended up floting on a door this time!!! ok bye

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