Have you ever wondered about the process that goes into a piece of art? Well, whether you have or not, I am going to tell you a little about it.
This is a commission that Hannah just finished and delivered.
It’s a nice picture, isn’t it? Sweet, simple, and straight forward. Except that it wasn’t so simple and straight forward.
First, Hannah and I did a photo shoot of these two. Seventy two photos later, we had what we needed, or so we hoped. Here is what taking pictures of two dogs looks like.
First thing you want to do is become friends with the dog. Although we had already succeeded in that without bribes, a little treat never hurts anything.
After meeting the dogs and interacting with them for a bit, we discovered that Ellie is terrified of the camera (or at least of Hannah’s camera), and Yesha is practically blind and doesn’t always know which way you are trying to get him to look, (but he was still so sweet). Ellie would only pose for the camera if I was holding her and telling her what a good girl she was (which, by the way, was true, she is a very good girl). Yesha, on the other hand, would have stayed in the same place for hours with Hannah snapping pictures as long as I was petting him and talking to him. Unfortunately, if I was holding Ellie, Yesha would wander off. And if I was petting Yesha, Ellie would go off and hide. All that to say, we couldn’t get a photo of them together. So instead, Hannah chose the best one of each and put them together.
Ellie, feeling much happier in my arms
Yesha, trying to climb into my lap
Here are a few photos that didn’t make the cut.
Yesha was getting very comfortable
A little too comfortable
Ellie refusing to look at the camera
Still not sure if she should trust that camera
Next, Hannah had to try to accurately size the pictures while drawing them, (which was hard because we didn’t have the actual dogs with us and had to go off of memory). They are close in size, but Ellie is a little bigger than Yesha, and Hannah wanted to get it right. I think she did great!
And then came the best part, bringing the drawing to life! Check out the progression below as Hannah worked on this piece. (And yes, she did use all of those colors.)
Did you notice what else Hannah had to do to this piece? She removed their halters. It wasn’t as challenging to do Yesha because of his short, straight hair, but Ellie was a bit more difficult. Her halter was bigger, and a large section of her pretty curly hair had to be created from nothing. I think Hannah did a pretty good job, don’t you?
Well, that is it in a nutshell. (Of course there is also the process of drawing, and shading, choosing the right colors, accomplishing the correct textures,…) Simple, right?
~Elisabeth~