Watercolor

Dixie

This piece, titled “Dixie” is a 16x20 inch watercolor painting inspired by my standard poodle by the same name. The aspects I enjoyed working with in this piece were the proportions and textures. I tried to give the illusion that her nose was poking out of the page. I did this by making the snout and ear very large and adding more color. The majority of this piece is monochromatic. I used brown and black for fur and carpet. Only the nose and snout have traces of red. I feel that this made them stand out even more. I also focused on the eye. I tried to give them emotion, and made a secondary focus point in the piece. I used both dry brush and wet on wet techniques when making the fur. First, I laid a primary coat of light brown with a wet brush. Then, with a dry, damaged brush, I made the individual hairs of the ear, back, and snout. With the ear, I used long, curly strokes that gave the illusion of soft hair. The snout, carpet, and back consisted of shorter strokes. I am pleased that the painting portrays my dog’s personality and I hope that it evokes entertained and happy feelings by people who view it.