Lost my best bud a little while back.

Knew I wanted to do a painting of him, and had a few pics selectedย  that I’d shot one morning of him laying out in the sun to work from.

I’ve always done paintings of loved ones who’ve passed. It’s sorta been my way of saying goodbye. I think about them as I work, and try to paint how I remember them into the painting a little bit. It’s a nice way to work through those feelings, and in the end to I made a nice little memorial piece that lives on in some way.

But I couldn’t do it with Bob. I managed to get a drawing done and transferred it to a panel, but I could not bring myself to paint it. I’d look at the photos and I’d just fucking lose it.

I’ve lost plenty of people I’ve cared about deeply over the years, but none affected me as deeply as losing my Bob.

I think it was the combination of having been around each other 24-7 for the past 7 years, the cancer, amputation, chemotherapy and the personal investment involved…and we just vibed in a way I never had with another animal. His passing was like a nuclear bomb of grief and loss. I can’t believe how bad it hurt.

So this panel sat on my easel for 3 months waiting to be painted.

Last week I finally sat down and started working on it. I started with his face and worked down into his body, getting it massed in wet in wet.

I worked straight into a white gessoed panel and used a lot of hogs hair bristle brushes to get more brokenย  edges and allow the white to show through in areas. I’ve incorporated this more and more into my stuff over the years. There’s an abstracted quality to this method that tends to play well with my habits.

Once I got the body laid in, I began working the background. started to frame some stuff around the head, but then I jumped into the ground, scrubbing it in with a large flat brush. I scrubbed a lot to get those softer value transitions that occur in dappled sunlight.

Once I had the ground scrubbed in, I dove full on into the background, working directly with hogs hair brushes, sticky Half dried paint and no thinner or medium to get that broken edge look I was talking about earlier.

Then I glazed the ground plane with a thin layer of pthalo green and Indian yellow and started bringing everything together.

Past couple days I’ve been trying to figure out the best way to do the grass, but I think I have an idea of how to approach it now.

Reworked the head a bit today, repainted the eye, his nose, and changed the ear. Looks a lot more like him now I think. Spent some more time on that front leg and the paws too.

We’re at that point in the painting where everything is in, and it’s just about figuring out how to close out areas now. How far to take things vs what to leave alone or sand out.

still needs some more love, but It’ll get there.

Wish he was here to fling drool all over it though lol