Abby was an 8 year old female silver lab, I know what you are thinking she looks like a chocolate lab but I have seen her papers and they say silver! My friend Chad, no not my dog, this is an actual human named Chad was Abby's other half.
Abby and Chad went everywhere together at first by choice and then by necessity. Chad loved bringing Abby with him but it got to the point that they spent so much time together that she would lose her mind if he was too far away. Chad and Abby were a perfect fit, he even brought her to work everyday!
She seemed fierce from a distance with her big head and scary low bark but she was a very timid and loving girl, even little Chad (the dog this time) put her in her place a time or two when he felt like being bossy.
Right after Christmas Abby got really sick and dropped 20 lbs over the weekend! I was shocked when I saw how thin she suddenly was!
Poor girl had the diabetes and Chad the human would be administering insulin to her now ever day twice a day... Aside from the obvious weight loss everything seemed fine again, Abby was back to her usual adorable self. Whining slightly more than usual because she wasn't getting all the unfinished food everyone was now throwing in the trash.
Suddenly two weeks ago things took a turn for the worst and Abby ended up back at the veterinarians.
There was nothing they could do, Chad had to let her go.
This was the saddest day, everyone Abby met fell in love with her sad eyes and he charming personality. I wanted to make human Chad feel better but there is nothing you can say to make the loss of a loved one any better.
I decided I would try my hand at painting a canvas with Abby on it that I could give to Chad to help curb his sorrows.
I thankfully had one photo source, only one photo is not ideal but it's better than painting someone from memory. Especially when you are trying to get a certain likeness. You can see little Chad the dog in on the back of the bed if you look carefully, he almost blends in with the light coming from behind him.
Like most paintings you start from a blank surface and just start adding colour. I wanted this to be a portrait, a likeness of Abby that would help Chad to remember her and make him smile when he looked at it.
Blocking things in at the beginning of a painting is always the easiest part, it's just paint filling in the forms you need coloured. The importance of this step is to get the basic proportions and placement of your image set. Once you are happy with your main focal point I like to move on to the background.
For a portrait you could have a basic background, you don't need to include any real structural space, it can just be colour or abstract. Today I decided to put her inside a room because I wanted her to be on a dog bed, this way it wouldn't look like she was floating in space.
My original idea was to make the walls around her wooden, as if she were in a log cabin because Chad the human is a carpenter and works a lot with log homes. As I painted the logs were not manifesting themselves the way I envisioned so I decided to give them texture in hopes that it would give the image more dimension. I liked the look with the texture a lot more however it does remind me of bricks a bit.
Towards the end I had to choose a light source for this painting because the light source from the photo was unappealing as there were 2 lights directed at her. After deciding where the light was coming from I could add in the shadows and the highlights, these would be the final touches before Miss Abby was complete.
I told Chad the human I made him something, I showed him the painting but it was all wrapped in tissue paper. When I handed it to him he asked me if he was going to cry when he opened it, I said maybe...
I saw him this week and he said he really loved that I created this image for him and he now has a little Abby shrine at his place. He said he could look over at her and smile because he could see her sad puppy dog eyes that she never grew out of looking back at her when ever he walked by.
This made me smile.
R.I.P. Miss Abby Girl, you were a beautiful soul and we will all miss your puppy dog eyes and wagging tail.
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