Animal and Wildlife Art Lessons
"Melvin the Hound"
By David Dowbyhuz
I prefer not to apply paint to a pure white canvas. I tint the canvas with a dominant tone. For this painting I chose burnt sienna. I use actual paint thinner mixed with a small quantity of oil paint. This serves three purposes; one, it tones down the glare of the white canvas. Two, when using thin passages of paint later on you won’t get those annoying white specks showing through initial layers, for those like myself who paint in very thin layers. The third reason is the paint seems to adhere to the canvas better, as if the paint-thinner has roughened up the texture some, making it less slick.
I often begin applying paint at this point, but I will sometimes finesse the tint with a little more pigment in the darker areas; basically a selective second, heavier coat of the first wash. Using a new ink eraser I gently erased areas of the tint to bring out the brighter areas of the painting. This step is not really necessary, but it gives me a mini-preview before I get further into the painting.
Now I am ready to actually paint. I will proceed in the traditional fashion of working from the background to the foreground. In this case that nebulous space above the arm of the couch. Here I’ve used a blend of asphaltum, a beautiful warm brown, and Naples yellow to lighten and add volume. I chose not to use white to do this, as white tends to bleed the value of brown.
Throughout this process you will see me basically filling in the spaces, not at all like some traditional painters who cover the entire canvas in succeeding layers of paint. I cover the surface initially in this “patchwork” manner. Here I begin adding the variegated tones to start the pattern on the couch arm. I will continue this variety of tone throughout this early stage as I apply and butt the other colors against each other, wet against wet, keeping the edges soft as I go. I must also avoid turning those edges into mud.
The arm is largely set with the basic tones and values at this stage of the painting. The colors used include sap green, yellow ochre, mahogany red, thalo green, Prussian blue for the deepest darks, and a mixed blend of zinc & titanium white. My goal was to achieve some basic dimension without getting bogged down on final values at this stage.
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