Good morning everyone. This strange creature is a bush dog, found in South America. To be honest, I hadn’t heard of it either. But I was researching ” Canines ” for a challenge we had been set in my Beginner Gouache group on Mewe. And I found this fab photo by Gaynor Lewis – thank you Gaynor! In fact, I rarely paint dog portraits but I do enjoy it when I do. Anyway, this member of the canine family has a bear shaped head and webbed feet. As you might expect, they hunt in packs, but, more unusually, they ambush their prey in rivers and streams.
Obviously, I did my little painting for the group in gouache paint. Actually, I’ve been doing a lot of work in acrylic lately for another one of my art projects. ( See here for my latest Australian landscape). But , I soon got into the swing of it and I really love the almost chalky textural marks you can create. In addition, this seems tailor made for the rough coat of a wild dog with all the gradations of colour.
One of my Acrylic Dog Portraits
Finally, I couldn’t finish this post without showing you one of the dog portraits that I did a couple of years ago with my tutor. Unfortunately, this group was disbanded but, nothing lasts for ever and I was lucky enough to learn such a lot with this teacher. This is acrylic paint and it’s much easier to work with than gouache. For instance, I could have as many attempts as I liked to portray the shaggy coat! The tilt of the head was a challenge, but Simon helped me to make a reasonable job of the nose and the tongue advancing out of the picture. Happy days – painting all day long with good company and a great teacher!
If you missed my other post on painting dogs, see here
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Awesome paintings. I have previously used Acrylics but never Gouache. I am currently learning to sketch human faces. Happy drawing.
Thank you, Ally. I hope you carry on with your drawing – perhaps painting next ?
I have previously done some paintings but then decided to take some online lessons.
I’ve only dabbed with gouache so far (onto a couple of watercolors) plus one small gouache quick try and I like it too! I can lay a sheet of color without bare spots, but moisten it to loosen up the density. So interesting about the bear dog group! Love the coloring you put on its coat, esp the rose like tints! And your acrylic is adorable, background and dog working so well together! 😊
Thank you so much, Felipe. I’m glad you like gouache too. Like you, I find it really handy to change the colours after they have dried.