Sep 2 - Dog Commission Finished

Here's the finished commission of the two dogs, and the collector loved it! I delivered it still wet in places, and he said I captured the personalities of the pooches with perfection of paintbrush (well, that's my interpretation!). The dog on the right is reserved in nature, and the one on the left is constantly happy and a bit goofy.

Getting that inherent personality is very essential to doing commissions, and I try my best to get it. The location is important for the client, too--the front porch is where they spend time and the positions are also characteristic, down to the twisted paws on the shy dog.

It was fun going from the cools of the area near the front door into the warms as the foreground came toward the viewer. And painting the tongue with alizarin and white seems to break the rules, but if you recall the lessons about human skin, dog's tongues follow the same rule. The learning never ends, does it?

I had a question from one of my friends who receives my blog, about how I handle messy cleanup in the studio, and thought you might enjoy seeing my solution. I purchased from SimpleHuman, a covered trash bin that uses plastic grocery bags. The cover keeps any brush cleaning solvent odors in check, and the bags are ubiquitous, so I never run out. I have two of these trash bins, one at either end of my taboret. Light weight, they hang from the end, and it is a simple matter to toss in the soiled towels and other debris.
The ingenious device also has storage for extra bags below it. Here's a link if you'd like more info. Thinking outside the box again, this was originally designed to go under the kitchen sink.

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