Smudge. Oil on Wood Panel. 8″x 8″

With oil painting the restorative method is more complicated than a typical portrait. So I don’t do it that often. In this case the original photograph is damaged, discolored, and crops out the left side of the body. Luckily I was able to correct all these issues.

There were 2 major components that lead to the successful restoration of this photo. Lighting and Color.

The lighting is from a camera flash which made all the highlights occur in the same direction. Thus it was mimicable in areas where that information was missing.

The color in the original photo is pink-red that is common in old flash film. Smudge is a black lab so the fix was as simple as painting her coat in black and white.