Useful tips for pet portrait painting

Choosing colours

To make sure you create a pet portrait that not only looks good, but remains that way for centuries to come, an artist selects paints that have excellent colour saturation and plus a high degree of permanence. However, another aspect of paint which is just as important, is opacity.

The pigment for each colour comes from various sources and each source will create a paint that is either opaque (it has good covering power) or transparent (allows light to come through). When choosing the colour palette for your pet portrait it is important to bear this in mind.

Choose opaque colours for the under painting, or when the background should not affect the applied colour. These colours are also good for 'wet on dry' techniques where the juxtaposition of the colours creates the finished effect. "Scumbling" is a technique that works on this principle, paint is dragged over a dry layer of colour leaving broken areas of the first layer to show through.

Transparent colours are excellent for glazes, and building up effects where the under lying colour needs to have an impact on the colour being applied, shadow areas are also good place to use transparent colour.