"Fissa lo sguardo del tuo cane e tenta ancora di affermare che la bestia non ha un'anima" - V.Hugo

Welcome To Dog Portraits

Dog Portraits is an idea born from the need to conjugate 2 big passions: animals, especially for dogs, and figurative art.

FORM AND CONTENT

The portrait is a result of the union between the artistic tool and the dog's essence, through the aesthetics research and it's outer look, from which the essence can't be excluded.
For aesthetics, we're not talking only about the dog's beauty in its strict form, but more for some particular traces, that could be more or less interesting, but surely characterizing for such subject.

FROM REALITY TO HYPER-REALITY

This portrait thing, is more like a surgery operation, which isn't different from reality, beautiful or not, so that the image is decomposed through the analysis and the perfect research of the details, that not only re-builds into a hyper-reality, but it even goes further looking better.

TECHNIQUE

This justifies a technique that doesn't start from a simple sketch, but from a process of abstraction: from the detail, that in the beginning is a entity on its own, withdrawing from the wholeness, it returns to it on the reconstruction process. A sort of a piece in a puzzle.

technique

This kind of study could be done only through a photo, undergoing through a kind of violation in the analyzing phase, for then being synthesized on the paper with the "new" soul of the subject, filtered from my eyes through my hand....

THE PHOTO

Here are two very important factors to consider for the final result.
An important thing is the quality of the photo: the higher is the resolution, the easier it is to catch fine quality details, helping the final result to be better and realistic. In the case of the photo here above, the resolution wasn't highest, but the peculiar traces of the animal's race determined the result.
The choice of the photo is basic: for the result and even for expressivity.
The other basic element is the dog's pose. The work will be more satisfacting if the photo reflects and transmits your dog's mood. For example: a photo of a subject in 3/4ers has an emotional impact totally different than an image taken from the straight front, with the dog's stare towards us. The 3/4ers one could give a sense of majesty, elegance and pride. The front side one instead, could express sweetness, sagacity, melancholiness or exuberancy. In any case, these are different affective moments determined mainly by the direction of the dog's stare.
The choice is up to you first, it depends on how you want to immortalize your faithful friend, on what he prints or printed in your memory. In a few words on the "image" you have about him.