Buster, King of Hearts

SOLD

King of Hearts © 2014 Karen Mathison Schmidt

6 x 6 inches • oil on 1/8" Gessobord
private collection • Poway, California

Here’s Buster, putting on his best soulful expression. Yep, he’s a real chick magnet.

Here are my work-in-progress photos:

First I went over my sketch with phthalo blue acrylic, then I applied a phthalo blue acrylic glaze over the whole picture.

 Next I added a layer of purple glaze on Buster’s ears and muzzle, and green glaze on his face and chest area.

 Now I switch to oils and start on those heart-melting eyes.

For this painting I used the same colors on my palette
as in the poppy painting of a few days ago.

Because of the slow drying time, using oils allows me some time to go back and blend certain areas. I like to try for a balance between side-by-side colors (or broken color) and blended edges. It makes for a more interesting finish painting.

As much experience as I’ve had painting dogs, it still surprises me sometimes how much real estate their noses take up in the area of the face.

I love painting the redbones. So many luscious color variations in their reddish coats. Buster is darker overall than our others, but as he ages he’s getting lighter and lighter around his cheekbones and the sides of his muzzle. Very distinguished.

Happy painting!