Yin and Yang

"Yin and Yang", an online exhibit sponsored by the Canine Art Guild, opened yesterday. As soon as I learned that the theme of this exhibit was to be Yin and Yang, I knew I had to paint my dogs, Maggie and Lizzy. They are so totally different. Maggie is a hound dog mix and is about as laid back as a dog gets. She loves to spend time just laying on the top of our ridge and watching over her land. Lizzy is a Jack Russell Terrier who just turned 1. Those of you who know JRTs will know immediately how different a JRT is from Maggie. Lizzy is a bundle of energy that seems to move at high speed anytime she's not asleep.

The challenge was just how to represent the yin and yang that my two best friends are. This was one of those paintings that gets created in my head over a long period of time. I spent about 2 months figuring out what I wanted to do. About a month ago, the image that I ended up painting just popped into my head. (I work great under deadline pressures!)

This painting was done with Prismacolor Colored Pencils on Bristol Smooth paper. Originally, I intended to paint this on canvas with oils. When I drew the original sketch, I enjoyed my time working with pencil at my drafting table so much I decided to paint it with my colored pencils. It would also give me a chance to try out some new techniques I'd recently read about. The blue background was done by rubbing a colored pencil against a tea strainer into a cup and then picking up pigment with a cotton ball and rubbing it on the paper. This was fun and a much faster way to cover the paper. Another new idea I tried was to use Turpenoid to blend layers of color.

In addition to the yin and yang of Maggie and Lizzy, I used the obvious yin and yang symbol on the stand that Lizzy sits on and on the ball in Lizzy's mouth. I carried the opposites further with using color complements. Purple and yellow. Blue and orange. Red and green. Can you tell how much fun I had?

Grab yourself a cool drink, relax, visit the show and vote for your favorite at the Canine Art Guild's website. Be sure to leave your email so your vote will count. And don't vote more than once, or your vote will be tossed out.

Thanks for reading....
susan

www.susangarriques.com
susan@susangarriques.com

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