Art Attack! #36: Let Sleeping Doggos Lie 🐶

Hey Hive!

We're back again with another Art Attack! If you're new to the series, this is where I share my drawings and the process behind them. A behind-the-scenes look at my artwork, if you will. This is not to say that I'm very good at art, or that I'm a professional in any way. In fact this is the opposite, and serves as a reminder to how I first started, and lets me track my progress too!

So back in March, I came across this really nice photo on instagram by one of my favourite doggo accounts - mayapolarbear!

Maya is a really cute samoyed and she's so friendly and floofy! Maya and her owner are so adorable together; I always look forward to seeing her posts on my feed because they always make me smile.

Anyway, I've been wanting to do another doggo piece for a while and this photo was just so tranquil-looking and wallpaper-worthy I thought I'd try to recreate it!
But of course, easier said than done. This was my initial sketch:

And after adding in the background elements and adjusting Maya's face a little bit, here was the final sketch:

Next it was time to outline!

I didn't want to outline everything, since I only wanted some of the indoor stuff to have the bold lines. It was kinda tough to do Maya's fur since I didn't want it to be too detailed, so I kept it pretty simple and basic. And I was also going for a minimalist, pastel style.

Next it was time to paint!

Apologies for the angle, my lighting wasn't very good.

The good thing about Maya was I didn't have to worry about painting her since she's all white. I mean I know she has shadows in the actual photo but it's kinda tough to convey that without ruining the whiteness of her coat so I just left her completely white so she'd be more recognisable.

So obviously most of the colour would come from the background and the furniture. The curtains were kinda tricky to do, since they were sheer irl and had some light and colour coming through them. I tried my best to mix in the grey of the curtains with the blue of the sky and it seemed to work pretty okay at least.

And after painting the floor and adding in the final touches, this was the final piece!

I actually really like this piece a lot. The perspective of the table might've been a little off now that I look at it in hindsight, but I think it still turned out alright. It was tough conveying the lighting effects of the original photo using watercolours, and I probably should've added some shadows. But I think I managed to capture the tranquil feel of the original at least, which was pretty much the main point of this piece anyway.

Here's another shot of the painting in full:

This was my second attempt at a real dog portrait. The first was one of a corgi named Lady Sesame von Bagel! And I think I like this one better. Although it's kinda hard to compare since the focus of the paintings are very different.

I really liked this minimalist, pastel style a lot; it's really just breaking the photo down to its basic elements and smoothing them out. The contrast of the bold lines with the light watercolours was also nice. Overall, I thought it was pretty well done. And Maya liked it too, so yay!

I can't wait to laminate this and put it up on my wall!

Thanks so much for reading!