German Shepherd and Jack Russell pet portrait commission

The German Shepherd and Jack Russell pet portrait is now finished. I'm just about to add 3 layers of varnish ready for the client to give as a birthday present later this week.

If you would like to view the painting process stage by stage, you can see it by clicking HERE.

Information on how to commission your own painting.

German Shepherd and Jack Russell custom portrait painting

This pet portrait has been commissioned as a birthday present for the joint owner. Several seperate photos have been supplied by email and I have printed them out and selected the ones I feel will work best if I group the 'chums' as if sitting together. The German Shepherd has a wonderful noble demeaner and the Jack Russell appears to be laughing.


I'm using a 10x12 inch stretched canvas and began by making a drawing in pencil. If you would like to see progress of this painting, you're welcome to come back and take another look as work progresses over the next few days.


In session 2 I began by loosely adding a light wash to both animals. I then roughly blocked in a background. The colour of the background, as with everything else, will evolve as the painting progresses.


Session 3: Beginning to add more layers. Long way to go.

Session 4: More layers added and starting to gradually build up colour depth and detail.


Session 5: Worked on the German Shepherd and background, adding depth and shadows. In case you're wondering about the spooky 'blank' eyes..... painting eyes is my favourite part of a portrait project and I like to leave them as a treat for myself as long as possible. I feel it's time for the eyes will get some attention during the next session.

Session 6: More layers ... and today we have eyes!


Session 7: Worked on adding detail and texture to the German Shepherd. Lots of work to do on the little Jack Russell next time.


Session 8: Added shading and texture to the Jack Russell and cleaned up her profile. More detail on the German Shepherd also, softening some of the fur texture and adding detail overall. Before I go any further, now is a good time to get feedback from the client, so that any amendments can be made before fine detail added.


Session 9: Lots of progress and changes on the Jack Russell. In consultation with the client it was agreed to bring the ears forward and she does look so much better as a result. More layers and refining.

The Work of Bob Gregson

Couldn't resist sharing this video with you. Who says Art can't be fun?!

Algonquin Park Canada original painting

Algonquin Park must be one of the most beautiful places on earth. When a client recently commissioned me to paint this landscape, I jumped at the chance. It seemed a tall order at first, as I have never been to Canada, but then I haven't met all of the people whose portrait I paint either, so I decided to accept the challenge.

On this occasion the client did not have a particular photograph for me to work from, but she did know very precisely what she wanted featured; a canoe, the Algonquin sign and trees.

I then had a fabulous time becoming familiar with how the forest and lakes look, helped enormously by Ray Mears Northern Wilderness BBC TV program. For those of you interested in the painting process, here are a few 'work in progress' images.

FAMILY PORTRAIT PAINTING

At the beginning of this commission, the client presented me with a pretty poor quality image; the face of the little boy on the left was almost completely obscured by the book, there was distortion in the eyes caused by flash photography and overall the image was blurry. But inspite of all that, I was instantly captivated by the idea of painting this grandfather reading to his little grandsons. What a lovely image of love and shared experience between the generations!

With the aid of additional separate photos of the subjects sent to me by the client, I was slowly able to piece together the visual information I needed to make the desired composition. I am so glad that together we persevered and created a unique keepsake for this special family to enjoy for generations to come.

FACEBOOK

As you can see here on the right, I now have a page on Facebook. If you want to see what I'm upto and swap a word now and again I'd be happy to see you there. Just CLICK HERE.

COMMISSION A PORTRAIT FROM YOUR OWN PHOTO

Hope you all had a great summer.

After a long summer of special projects, travelling and family visits, I'm now back in the studio and accepting commissions for custom paintings from your photos as usual.

I may be gone for some time

Apologies to visitors, expecting to see new work. Truth is, I'm working on an extremely large project, which I don't want to blog about. It will take many months, so things are going to be quiet here. I shall still be answering all emails, of course, if you care to get in touch.

If you have the stamina, by all means check back from time to time .... but be prepared for a long wait. In the meantime, thank you for following me thus far.