Another Animals in Chairs finished - "Chocolate Labs on a Sofa"

Chocolate labs on a sofa

Don't you just want to cuddle that little face? I think I've dogs on the brain of late, as I've been missing my own sweet doggos.

The joy from Puppy to Old friend

I know technically this is NOT a chair but in fact a sofa. You'll recall I shared the sketch and watercolor study of these chaps in a previous post starting with a pencil sketch scanned to move into the digital bit of the painting.

Then I digitally inked the pair

But had to decide what chair to put them in, so they got set aside as I continued on with other work in the studio.

I Love chairs so it was not hard work to sketch out a few variety
but found for the perspective I wanted to show of youth to old age, somehow the sofa or settee in this case, seemed to fit more.

They got their antique settee and some base colors when down

A watercolor underlayer for the pair
I love multiple layers in digital works. It really is magic for an old school artist like myself and even tho this pair ended up in digital oil pastel, the underpainting of the watercolour still gives it depth, I think.

The 'chocolate' of the labs is tones of pinks and oranges
for I like that bold feel of color when I'm doing my animals in chairs. There is something about the painterly smudges of oil pastel against a ground of flat graphic color that I just like. To me the mix of sketchy, painterly, and flat graphic just suits my animal in chairs series.

I also Love pattern
and delicate curvilinear lines in old wallpapers and fabrics. This design was inspired by William Morris patterns I love and I thought the gold outline, picking up the seat of the sofa, and infused with a tone down of the same green of the sofa make a nice pop behind our doggo pair.

And it is done with background and shadow

Here, again, I love the idea of a flat tonal colour , this blue/green turquoise, really sets off the green of the sofa and works in compliment to the dogs, (blue and orange being complimentary). Tho they sit in a flat plane of color , the suggestion of 'shadow' cast from the sofa gives it a grounding.

I do love a GIF