No. 306: Dogs on a Hill

"Dogs on a Hill" by Tom Wills, watercolor

"Dogs on a Hill" is No. 306. I worked on this tor two weeks in October 2015 as summer gave way to fall. But I'd really been working on the concept much longer.

Dot, Coal and Whip.

Finishing the yard work.

I always wanted to do a bigger sequel to a small watercolor from November 2011 called "The Waiting Dog." It's simply a silhouette of a dog (almost Disney-like) waiting at a window from dawn to dusk for his owner to return from a day away. I always wanted to revisit that approach, but with more dogs, congregating to watch the sunrise.

"The Waiting Dog," November 2011

"Dogs on a Hill" is that, except in full color and three dimensions. Also, the dogs are in the heat of the day. With a few exceptions it turned out as I had envisioned for so long (the concept was kinda loose).

They are everyone's dogs.

The dogs on the hill are not my dogs, nor yours. They are random pictures from the internet. As luck would have it, the standing dogs could be positioned to face each other while the resting dog fit right in the middle.  I tried to scale them appropriately so that they appear to be naturally together. I named them Dot, Coal and Whip.

The beginning.

A watercolor wash.

The dalmatian and the lab-hound mix appear to be females, and I like to think they are squaring off over the black lab, assumed to be a male. Lucky fella.
But more likely, they're just dogs hanging out on a hill — carefree and oblivious to time.

Squaring off?

This one started with a fairly detailed sketch showing the dogs, some shading and indicating the general contour of the land under the sky. I first washed in some blue and purple, then some green and yellow and brown. Then I added black and blue for the middle dog, brown and orange for the lab-hound and very faint gray for the dalmatian.

Building up the details.

From those beginnings I built up details: Muscles on the brown dog, facial features and long hair on the black lab, spots on the dalmatian. The ground got ridges and the sky got a few faint clouds.

Coal

Dot

Whip

One of those "few exceptions" to my vision turned out to be a serious proportional issue with the brown lab's head, and later the dalmatian's face. The problem arose from paint blotting too deeply into the paper, making the heads look too big. They were ponies for a few days.

Nose jobs.

The only solution that I could think of was to add white acrylic paint to a watery solution of blues and purples and completely re-do the sky,  painting around the dogs' bodies.  In its wet stage the paint appeared disastrous, but overnight it dried to an acceptable color. The added white even made it look like there are some fluffy clouds on the horizon.
I got lucky.

Starting the lay of the land.

Next came the grass and earth.
The earth is supposed to look like clay but actually is a mixture of yellow, brown, orange, red and gray (much like real dirt). A little white lightened up some of the curves.
I penciled in where I wanted the grass blades, and then painted them in with a thin brush using mixes of green, yellow, brown and black.  But they looked too "thick" so I washed over the whole thing with more brown and yellow, and then used colored pencils to add thin spikes of grass.
That's called cheating.
I then washed over all of the grass with a mix of yellow, brown and green. Done!

Right before the final touches

I am an amateur artist.  I make my living from words, not pictures.
But it is the pictures that give me the greatest creative freedom, provide the essential space that I need in my crowded and noisy life, and generate my greatest satisfaction at the project's end.
The paintings are much more challenging than the pencil drawings, and take many more hours. They offer the biggest scares and the most thrills.
And yet, I know that the paintings have imperfections. That's what makes them original.
P.S.: Who doesn't love dogs?

This painting is no longer for sale. Dot, Coal and Whip live now with their friends Rawlie, Gracie, George and Rebel. And Denise, who always said she has room in her heart for more, and plenty of wall space.