Friday, July 31, 2009

July 31 - Going to the Dogs!

I'm starting this 9 x 12 oil of one of the two Teddy Roosevelt Terriers today, as I am enjoying the "recuperation" from my birthday a few days ago... turning "of an age" can be solemn, or it can be a bit crazy. I took the latter path...no surprise.

So today, to do penance if I were so inclined to think like that, I'm going to the dogs! Inspiration for this painting came literally "right under my feet". In the leg space under my roll top desk (where I sit typing this) there's a donut dog bed and I glanced down and saw Onslow in a familiar sleeping position. So I took out my camera and lights, and took several images, adjusting the lighting and shooting without a flash. The source material is below. Total comfort!

The linen canvas was scumbled with an under layer of ultramarine blue, burnt umber and yellow ochre, setting the tone for the colors to come. This scheme will be with the Color System, and I'll keep the complimentary dominance of blue/orange and yellow/purple to make it work.

You can see I don't spend a lot of time drawing, although for this unusual pose I did do a sketch in my sketchbook to lock down the location of all those airborne paws. The painting is coming along nicely now.

There may be one or more spaces in the Sebastopol Color Boot Camp in August--less than two weeks before I head up north of San Francisco to both give a painting demonstration in Ukiah, and then the workshop and demonstration in Sebastopol. Please let me know if you'd like a dose of "Yellin' by Elin" in this Color Boot Camp workshop. Please contact me using the email link below, and I'll forward your interest to the person in charge. I hope to meet some of you there!

You can see my entire blog HERE.
My workshop schedule for 2009 is HERE.
Color System information can be found HERE.
If you need to email me directly, please click here.

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