FANU, A MASTIN ESPAGNOL, IS WISE AND A CALM COMPANION.
When you meet Fanu, you are not like "gosh what a cute and adorable animal!". In fact, Fanu is grand. Within him lies pure, pervasive wisdom that cannot be ignored.
Both bodily and immaterial, he has a strong and intelligent presence. With little display, he exerts great influence on his surroundings almost imperceptibly. I often experience this as soothing, comforting. And every now and then he helps make choices. That sounds abstract, but from the back, he can make the decisive difference with remarkably well-timed breathing or a change of pose, when hesitating.
And when you have eye contact with Fanu, you have entire conversations. His dynamic eyebrows work as subtitles if necessary. If you don't 'get it' yet, it allows him to literally and figuratively go in all directions to make his point.
I have already had the pleasure of meeting him regularly in groups. That's because his 'bosses' Olga and Raymond, friends of mine, work with groups from their professions and like to bring people together.
"Every now and then, I participate in their (inner) journeys. Fanu has been a pleasant 'active' participant for quite some time."
Fanu goes berserk when he is on the beach. His neatly restrained enthusiasm starts when he jumps out of the car at Harlingen and onto the boat. He knows: "soon it will be sand and sea!" To give you an idea, I have attached a photo I took last year at Terschelling during the photo shoot on the beach.
I usually push further in the first phase (see above) in charcoal to also evoke plasticity and depth. But this time, the positioning of key aspects of the face and proportions were enough to switch to oil paint. For the first round, the colour burnt umber was used (see below). This is not the final stage at this stage. It is unfortunately not captured in a photograph.
I wanted to explore the sun reflecting on his fur from the bottom right and leading into the portrait at an early stage. Here you can already see the folds emerging, which are also partly useful elements for easily interpreting his pose and volume.
Most fun, as usual, was in rendering his eyes and muzzle. There lie the strongest contrasts and most saturated colours to draw the viewer's attention there.
t is a delight to look for special details that offer a new layer of information for a closer look. His somewhat worn teeth, his moustache and beard hairs, for example.
Fanu is surrounded by a fairly complex play of light. The warm hues of the sun coming from the right contrast sharply with the bluish light of the sky from above. Together with the reflection of the warm sunlight from the left via the yellow sand, I had to take into account 3 light sources.
For example, you have to think of 1 colour of fur that you have to bring together in shadow, warm and cold light, so that it still becomes a believable whole. Those nuances together and flowing into each other, Fanu should be recognisable, and preferably evoke the right feeling.
Since the beach is really 'his thing', I thought it appropriate to evoke a sense of remoteness in the scene and reinforce that in relation to the chosen reference photo. Therefore, beach and dune-like features were applied, such as the line of dunes in the background and un-saturated (greyer) colours for sky and horizon. In contrast, more saturated colours were applied towards the foreground.
His head rises just above the dune, which causes him to stand out extra. The lines of the dune to his left and right are chosen so that they run towards him on either side to guide the eye.
Of course, again I had it expertly framed in natural oak veneer. Matching the interior of the house where the portrait now hangs.
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