Colorful dog portraits in Cape Town

I was contacted by Michelle to do commission paintings of her beautiful dogs. Since I love painting any living being, of course I agreed:)

These are the pictures that were sent to me.

Initially we were thinking of ding the portraits in mild colors using mostly, white, grey, blue, brown. And this is what it looked like:

Although I loved this look and had tremendous fun painting these boys. Michelle sent me this picture and asked if I could make the portraits look like this, since she loves everything of this painting:

I will admit that it was very hard for me to actually change the look of the paintings- as I really loved it. The next challenge was to understand how to get the feel that comes out of this painting. I tried different brushes and palette knife- but it just did not work. And then it stroked me - I had to use my fingers!!! It was a extremely messy stile for me, but extremely fun too:)

And here is the result!

We are very pleased with the result:) Happy ending!

The portraits are acrylic on canvas, 56 x 71cm each.

Cheers, Ritma

Alla Prima whale painting

I had some oil paint left after finishing the latest portrait painting. There was some paint left on my palette. I am generally a stingy person and could not let the paint go to waste.

One of my friends really loves whales and I had a small, plain canvas that I keep at home for those "just in case" moments.

So this is the result 10x10inch Alla Prima (wet-on-wet) oil painting of a Southern Right Whale.