---

Murphie Acrylic portrait

​This is a special memorial painting of Murphie who sadly passed away last year at the grand age of 20.  Black & White animals are always challenging as there is such a huge contrast in tones and the most important stage is laying down the correct undertones. A neutral background will be added to avoid detracting from Murphie herself and those beautiful eyes of hers.

---

THE CREATION PROCESS

The first stage of this Acrylic painting is to lay down a dark wash to ensure highlights can be layered correctly. Warm undertones are placed and pink tones have been applied to the left ear.  A texture is applied to the background which will be kept relatively neutral so as not to detract from Murphie herself.  Base layers are laid down keeping perspectives in check throughout and will be followed by refining of these details later.

Once all the base layers are laid down and every single area of the support has been covered, I can then begin the finer details. I start at the bottom of the painting balancing out the white fur and the shadows for definition before working on Murphie's face, being black I have to ensure her features are not lost and so add in some washes of brown to balance colours. I then defined her eyes, tweaked details and then finally added her whiskers. I will finish with 2 layers of varnish all over before preparing her for her journey home.

​

View a video lapse of Murphie's portrait in progress on Karen's Instagram page

---

THE FINAL PORTRAIT COMPLETED

"Thank you for taking the time and patience to get to the final result - I know from what you have said that her colouring was a challenge at times and I must admit it has been an eye opener to see the entire process from start to finish.  I have had a couple of friends already express an interest in having portraits painted of their dogs after seeing murph's progress so you may yet end up with some more commissions! Thanks again, especially for making the whole process so easy from my point of view!"