History of Pet Portraits

Today, we take photos of our pets all the time. We even take photos of our friends’ pets, our family member’s pets…basically any cute animals that we encounter. However, the admiration of pets and domestic animals dates back farther than you may think.

• The oldest paintings of animals discovered, so far, are around 19,000 years old. These paintings were found in caves in Lascaux, Southern France, and showcase animals in almost 600 different pieces of work. 

• The earliest artwork featuring domesticated animals come from Babylonia about 5,500 years ago, in 3500 BC. The paintings discovered are of goats and horses that appear to belong to humans who are also shown in the paintings.

• Domestic cats made their appearance in artwork a few hundred years later in the Ancient Egyptian era, where they were kept as pets by royalty. Only the Pharaoh could own a cat; however, the Egyptian people were very fond of the species and they were depicted in a large number of Egyptian works of art.

• Around 800 BC, Greeks demonstrated their fondness for dogs. There are thousands of sculptures, mosaics, pieces of pottery, and other works of art featuring dogs who appear to be domesticated. Dogs were also featured in numerous works of art from the Roman Empire, around this same time period.

• In the Middle Ages, dogs were mainly used as hunting aids, though some noblewomen did have dogs as companion pets, as seen in art from that era.

• During the Renaissance period, royalty and upper-classmen frequently had their portraits made. Many of these portraits include a dog at their side or on their lap. It seems that at this time it became more common to have a dog as a companion, and especially more common to document that relationship through art.

Color Study - Tempera Practice:

8. You will use your color scheme to work with color mixing of tempera paint and create a series of color studies to play with the BALANCE OF COLORS 

***See how the color scheme to the right has tints, shades and tones of the color choices? Notice that orange is the dominant color, the blue and green are sub - dominate and the brown is an accent. -------->

9. In your sketchbook, draw out at least 3 squares/rectangles that are each 4" x 4" minimum. In these squares, you will work with your color scheme to see your choices in action. You may do 1 (one) of these options: (see examples below)

• Do a quick drawing of your artwork and apply your color scheme choices directly to the scene.

OR

• Create a simplified version of your artwork using geometric shapes, allowing each area to act as different areas of your planned artwork. Apply your color scheme to these simplified shapes.

Each square will have the exact same drawing (you may use the light box or transfer paper if you want!) BUT an altered version of your color scheme, allowing you to to explore your color choices and make changes as needed. Look at the balance of colors as well as how well they work together.  Don't forget to add in your pet - your pet's colors are probably neutral and won't affect your color choices much, but you should still see the balance of colors.

***If you are having trouble deciding on a color scheme, use different ones in each of the drawings to help you decide.

You will be using tempera paint...get the feel of the paint, as it is different than acrylic. It is matte, thinner and brighter. Mix up each color you will use to practice- avoid using colors straight out of the bottle.

When your work is complete, take a photo and submit it in Google Classroom for a grade.