Painting Dog Portraits in Acrylics: Creating Paintings with Character and Life

Description

'This is a thorough and thoughtful guide that delivers on every count.' Artbookreview.net With a passion for animals that is evident throughout, animal portrait artist Dave White, also offers basic advice for beginners along with more advanced techniques suitable for experienced artists who wish to capture the spirit and character of dogs in their portraits. Beginning with detailed guidance on composition, colour and choosing your reference material, Dave White teaches you the essential painting techniques you'll need to start creating your own artworks - from producing an outline and underpainting to capturing the three-dimensional qualities of your pet that will make your paintings truly stand out, such as realistic hair and whiskers, getting the shine on a nose and a glint in an eye, and whether to show ears up or down or the tongues in or out. To follow, the author then offers three step-by-step projects of varying subjects - including a short-haired dog, a long-haired dog and a group portrait - which have been specially designed to encourage you to tackle the essential poses you'll need to start painting your own pooches. The book ends with a short section providing practical advice on setting up and running your own pet portrait business.

After 30 years of working in finance, Dave White discovered he could paint, and recognising that we all have creative gifts inside us, bursting to get out, he embarked on a new road of painting people's animals and teaching students how to do it. He exhibits annually at Crufts Dog Show and the New Forest Agricultural Show, and has undertaken numerous commissions all over the world. Living in the New Forest in England allows an up-close encounter with a variety of animals, including horses and dogs.

Painting Dog Portraits in Acrylics is a beautiful book written by a professional artist. The book is broken down carefully into bite-sized, step-by-step instructions so that even absolute beginners can understand and follow the most seemingly complicated stages of painting. Drawing from his own experiences, Dave White explains how to apply certain techniques to obtain different textures, how to choose the background for your artwork and why lighting and portrait positioning are critical. He gives step-by-step instructions on every part of the dog's face: eyes, ears, nose, tongue, fur type (with both long and short coats catered for), and explains how to create depth within a portrait and a certain 'mood'. There is even a short section at the end of the book on setting up a dog portrait business. Not a single aspect has been neglected, whether you are a hobby artist or a budding professional. There are delightful images throughout of the author's own art work and commissions, giving the book a personal feel. He also gives lovely anecdotes of his subjects and explains why he has painted each animals a certain way to portray their true character. His infectious enthusiasm for his work and his love of dogs shine's through on every page. This is a truly inspiring and engaging book for complete beginners, and even more experienced artists will pick up invaluable hints and tips. I would absolutely recommend this book to anyone thinking of venturing into the world of painting and I'm even going to have a go myself! * Dogs Monthly, March 2019 * What sets Dave White apart from other animal portrait artists is his ability to really capture the character of his subjects in acrylics. In his new book, Painting Dog Portraits in Acrylics, he shares with us some of the techniques he uses to do just that. This is not a book for beginners, and it assumes some experience with painting pet portraits, but Dave provides detailed information on composition, colour, choosing reference materials and essential painting techniques, including how to paint the glint in an eye or the shine on a nose. Three step-by-step projects include a short-haired dog, a long-haired dog and a group portrait. * Leisure Painter, February 2019 * 'This extensive study will tell you everything you could conceivably want to know about painting dogs.' 'There's plenty of technical information about hair, fur, eyes, ears, noses and structure as well as the all-important methods of combining all those details into a result that looks like your subject. Dave is a professional dog painter and his audience - the owners themselves - is a demanding one. They don't want a dog, they want theirdog and Dave explains what to look for in order to capture the character of the subject as well as how to transfer that to canvas.' 'This is a thorough and thoughtful guide that delivers on every count.' Read the full review here. -- Henry Malt * Artbookreview.net * in this remarkably comprehensive book, Dave will show you how to capture character alongside likeness, as well as providing all the technical information you'll need to do this. There's plenty of instruction, exercises, hints, tips and demonstrations covering hair, eyes, whiskers and noses, and Dave is superb at both showing and explaining so that you'll never feel lost or unequipped. * The SAA *