For the love of dogs

In Great Britain we are apparently a nation of dog lovers. There are roughly 8.5 million dogs in Britain and I am definitely one of those being the proud owner of two lively dogs. I have grown up with dogs and couldn't envisage my life without them. They are very much inspirational for me to paint, and more recently lurchers are.
They seem full of grace and emotion and being able to capture them on paper is a joy.
Sometimes I may see one of my dogs in a particular pose that I want to capture - other times I may reading a magazine and a stunning photo of a dog may pop out at me and require drawing. It can come from anywhere.

This is Mack.
He was inspired by two grey dogs I saw a while ago walking along the seafront. They were mixed breed but looked very solid. Unsure of their names I named this one Mack.

This is Monty.

He came along whist I was flicking through a magazine article about basset hounds. The expression on his face feels very moving to me. I quite like painting this one as he is actually brown. Most of my dogs aren't always so realistically painted!  Prints of Monty are available in a range of mounts.

His name came from my social media page. I asked people to name this little fellow and that is how Montys' name came about.

Ahhhh. Larry!

He came about during my 'lurcher phase'. He is mostly whippet with maybe something else added in the mixture as well.  The different shades of browns used in this painting went well together. Full of poise and grace is Larry - although his name hints at his more excitable part of him too.

Now this young man is one of my favourites - probably because the pose comes from my boy. He hasn't been named yet as I've not found the right name that fits him.

I started this one by sketching a rough pencil drawing of him and then gently and lightly adding delicate watercolours. Watercolours are an unforgiving medium so gentle strokes are best with them. Too much paint and it's very tricky to correct.

Lovely delicate Doris.

When I started painting her I didn't expect her to be looking so sad. Sometimes I have in mind the finished look but in this case I didn't. I personally love the colours in this painting. The hues of violet, correleum blue and a touch of ultramarine all blend well together. 

I hope you have enjoyed that little journey through some of my watercolour dogs.  

Thank you for reading my BLOG. 

whoever said diamonds are a girls best friend never owned a dog.
Vicky :-)