The Portrait Project.

Some weeks ago I started to get involved with a lot of new projects that were requiring me to make portraits from photos.
Sure, it is easy if you think as a painting because for the painter he can just copy what he sees and doesn’t need to care much about what is behind what he sees in 2D, but how can I sculpt a portrait out of a picture?
It is difficult I must say, because a lot goes to my free will and imagination of what and how could be that dog built.
It is here when I must apply some ‘basic’ anatomy knowledge to make at least a correct built dog, and secondly but not less important I have to apply my life experience of have lived and worked with hundreds of dogs to really understand why and how they do one or another thing and what kind of actions leads to whatever body expression.
The first project of this kind was Cæsar, the herding Standard Schnauzer- I am pretty happy of the result but of course I had to create the scene as I imagined it, and also adopt a posture which differs a bit from the photo that I was inspired about but I think we can see Cæsar in action very accurately.
Then other projects had been commissioned during time and I’m still working on them. They are about dear pets, very cherished by their owners and their main wish is to capture the essence of their dog/s at a certain moment. Normally is something very typical they do, like playing in a certain way, or just they way they look when they sit, whatever the reason is I have to base my work only on photos and perhaps some videos where I can get a more energy idea of their temperament.
Here are some of the projects I had been working on during the last month.

#theportraitproject
 
Barbara.