I was asked to paint a beautiful white chihuahua by the daughter of a friend for her boyfriends Christmas present. Little Hugo was such a delight and I got to meet him in person which is quite rare as usually people send me photos to paint. But his owner didn’t have a great in focus photo that I could use to produce a stunning portrait that Hugo deserved. So this time I got to take the photo and Hugo posed beautifully.
Hugo posed beautifully and I got this adorable shot of him tilting his head and his tongue sticking out. The poor fella was adopted and he need a visit to the vet which involved removing most of his teeth!
Here’s the initial sketch transferred on to velour. I rarely draw straight on to the velour because you can’t rub out. Velour has a pile to it just like a carpet or velvet only much smaller and shorter.
So i got cracking straight away with his gorgeous big chihuahua eyes. Unusually, i then started laying some colour down for nose, ears and tongue. Hugo being a white dog was challenging all my skills so I fellt that adding some colour would give me some confidence to get started on his fur. As you can see, my method worked as the fur is coming along nicely here. I love that art has no rules.
After getting started on his dainty features I started on the background. I compliment the pink of his skin and fur with a soft grey. I carry on with his coat and start with the underpainting of pinks and oyster shell peaches and a hint of grey too for the shadows the fur makes on itself.
And here is little Hugo complete with his gorgeous little tongue sticking out – he’s very sweet! I got so carried away with his white fur that I didn’t take may photographs of this wee chap. Soon I’ll be recording how I paint.
After discussing a few frame choices with my customer, she settled on this stunning pewter frame – it really makes Hugo stand out.
My customer kindly gave me a testimonial which you can read here
