Sophie!

Sophie ©2008 by Karen Mathison Schmidt
6 x 6 • acrylic on Gessobord
SOLD • private collection, Poway, California

Here's our Sophie, in all her fauve-a-listic splendor! I didn't intend at the beginning for this painting to be so fauve-ish (i.e. wildly colorful), but somewhere along the line the subject started to demand it. She's just so ... well ... enthusiastic! I know, I know, what puppy isn't?

Here are some progress photos:

First, I sketched her in blue colored pencil, then went over my pencil sketch with ivory black. I love this preliminary sketching ... seeing what I can do with different line weights and washes:



Next, I blocked in some color glazes:



Usually at this point I go ahead get the eyes to an almost finished state, because once you get the eyes right, that's 78-93% of the battle of making a good portrait. I just made that statistic up, but it seems true for me!



Next, adding more color detail and developing the highlights and textures ... and emphasizing the outlines in a few places, just to add a little interest:




Here are some close details of the finished painting:


I love Sophie's eyes ... they're so dark that they look black most of the time. I had fun trying to hold her still long enough to see those little color flecks in them!





And now for some photos of our actual subject!



All together now - aaawwwww!

And here are some from before she grew into her Dumbo ears:




Mmmmmm ... I think this must be a Yum Yum tree!