Thursday 4 February 2010

The Painting of the "Homer Lisa"

Well, me and Missus have now calmed down from the shock of receiving the portrait which Dad got Missus for her birthday. Despite Dad being so ‘sneaky’ about things, I can now reveal the whole process from conception to completion of the ‘Homer Lisa’.

First of all, Dad had to find an artist. Luckily, he managed to track down the best ‘Dog Arteest’ there is: Ms. Aimée Hoover. You can check out her work here. Aimée develops her portraits using photographs provided by her clients.

To make sure that we got a portrait which Missus really liked, he had to let her in on the secret fairly early on. Then the search for the perfect picture for my portrait began. Missus and Dad scoured the thousands of photographs in my extensive pawfolio. Having short-listed about forty potential candidates, my humans finally narrowed it down to a shortlist of three. Here are the ones that made the final cut:

The first two were taken recently in Milan...


This one shows my boyish innocence.



This is my profile shot. I look a bit more macho in this one.



This final shot was taken way back in 2007 when we were living in China.



And here are a few that didn’t make the grade:


What’s wrong with this photo? It shows me in all my glory!



If you're going to commission a portrait, you might as well get a bit of colour into it! Right?



Oops! Ahem...


Anyway, back to the matter in hand. The photograph which became the ‘chosen one’ was...







Ta-da. My youthful picture from China.



Now to the real story. Here are the pictures which Aimée took as she developed her/my masterpiece...

As always, Aimée starts with a bare canvas.




Here she had her ‘grid’ set-up and you can see the faintest outline of yours truly.




A sketch of me.




The first-coat background went in next...




...and then I started to get some colour in my cheeks.




Surely this isn’t me? I’m not green!




To add insult to injury (or should that be the other way round?) Aimée then gave me two black eyes.




Finally, booti-ful goldilocks started to emerge.




Getting brighter...




...and brighter.




Wow! This really is me.




A bit more background...




...almost done. And...




Voila! The most booti-ful boy in the world! (According to Missus).



If you want to see the process above described by a true expert, take a look at Aimée’s blog here .

To finish, here’s a photograph of my portrait taking pride of place in my human’s new house. (More on the ‘new house’ thing later).

Mama mia. Bellissimo!

14 comments:

Golden Samantha said...

Wow - how absolutely bootiful!!! Sooo sorry it's been so long since we've been around - my assistant has been either lazy or bizzy (no... can't figgur that one out either!). But how gorgeous you look in this amazing painting and I loved seeing how it was done! Furry cool! I know you will enjoy it furever!
Big Hugs xo
Sammie

NAK and The Residents of The Khottage Now With KhattleDog! said...

Thanks fur sharing that...

Of khourse, since it is still WIKHKED WEDNESDAY here, Merdie and I would have chosen from the alternate pikhs!

Hugz&Khysses,
Khyra

Unknown said...

Oh my God, Homer - I missed your Missus's birthday surprise! What a FANTASTIC present!!! My human is very jealous - that is just the most beautiful painting of a dog she has ever seen. And we loved to see how it came together, slowly, slowly, shade by shade - so amazing! We were especially amazed by how the artist put a totally different colour underneath (like the green on you and red in the background) and yet it all comes out looking so good in the end! Wow!

We're going to check out Aimee's blog now...maybe I can get a portrait of me too one day!

Slobbers,
Honey the Great Dane

Life With Dogs said...

How amazing to watch that come together. Beautiful work!

Lacy said...

woofs, its bute ti fulllll...she got ur expression just right...

b safe,
~rocky~

Angus said...

Un cane bello!

D.K. Wall said...

We are really confused why you eliminated some of those pictures. They would have created such a "different" atmosphere in a painting.

Loved seeing the process.

Ben said...

I vote you make beautiful paintings of the alternate pictures.

Molly the Airedale said...

Your portrait is just stunning, Homer, and it looks like it has the place of honor in your home!

Love ya lots,
Maggie and Mitch

How Sam Sees It said...

WOW! Thank you for sharing that with us! We love the painting - and have talked about it since it was revealed! How neat to have photos of it in process.

Sam

Augie and Ti's mom said...

Wow wow wow! Seeing the process happening was so interesting. You must be thrilled!

Allison Walton said...

Hey Homer!!

We absolutely LOVE Aimee's work! Our mommee is so jealous that you got a portrait painted! You are a very lucky guy.

Mommee uses a Canon 40D. She often shoots with a 50mm, 1:1.4 lens to get great depth of field. We're glad you like her pictures--she says that we are her favorite subjects!

Wuv,
Gus and Waldo

Dog By Nature said...

Hi Homer,

We finally made it over to visit...it is crazy here so sorry for getting behind. We LOVE your painting!! That is awesome, your mom must be thinking that is the best present ever (ok next to you yourself:)

Valerie Cummings said...

Wow thats totally amazing you showed us the steps and what a beautiful ending!!!!!! Simply gorgeous!!! Hugs, Joey and Kealani