Gracie

 

Gracie, 8x10

Here is Gracie!  I love all the color I got to put into this painting.  The shadows and light made this a great reference photo to work from.  She came together pretty fast too, which is always fun.  Enjoy!

Josh

Reference Photo

First Attempt

Josh, 16x20

This was a challenging painting!  I used my smallest brush for most of the fur, which was time consuming.  It was also a fairly large painting with a lot of black, which also takes a lot of time.  But, I really love the texture on his nose, and how it turned out in general.  I was reminded as I was working on this painting the effectiveness of layering color, and it worked really well (and took a lot of time!).

So, I'm glad to have this one done.  And the client loved it too :)

Diesel (Deviant Art Original 3 of 5)

Here is Diesel!  I had a blast painting him, as I did the other two paintings for this show.  That may be in part because I had a lot of freedom to do whatever I wanted, because these weren't commissions.  That, and I had great pictures to work from.

Unfortunately he was the last portrait I was able to get done in time for the show.  But, I still showed up with three great (and large!) portraits, and this one sold right away! :)  I also won best in show out of more than 30 artists!  I had a blast and hope I'm able to do another show soon.

Delia (Deviant Art Original 2 of 5)

Delia, 22x30

Hi everyone!  Enjoy these process pictures of beautiful Delia.  I was beyond excited to paint this pup when I received the photo, cause she looks just like the dog I used to have, Wilbur.  What is it about Pit Bulls that they give the sweetest expressions?!  You can just see how loyal they are when they look at you like this...unless, of course, they get a chance to run free and dig up old deer carcasses, they have a hard time coming home after that ;) 

Anyway, come see Delia's gorgeous portrait at the show in April.  Details here.

Sheba (Deviant Art Original 1 of 5)

Hi readers!  This is Sheba, and wow, was she fun to paint, and she's fun to look at too :)  This is the first of hopefully five dog portraits I am going to do for the Deviant art show in April.  I'm excited I've already got one done! (Because 5 originals before mid-march is very ambitious!)  

I stretched my paper before I started, which is something I've never done before but really wanted to try.  I like it!  It really did help to produce a flat final product.  So, I think I'll be doing that from now on.  If your curious what stretching watercolor paper looks like, watch this YouTube video.  

Learn more about the show and the organization it is helping to support here.  Thanks everyone!

Eddie

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Hi everyone!  I'm so excited to share the process photos of Eddie with you!  I realize now I should've had a picture that shows you the scale of this painting, cause it is the biggest size I paint, 22x30!  So, it makes a statement :)  Once again, so much fun to paint, but mostly a great learning experience.  I enjoyed using color and multiple brushes to help depict his fur, and he has a lot of that! 

 

Looking forward, I have a for fun painting on the horizon, of beautiful orange flowers :)  That is, unless I get some commissions before I get around to it...we'll see :)

 

Millie the Cat

Reference photo

Drawing

First layers and detail- you can see the masking here

Finished!

Here is Millie- a gorgeous tortoiseshell cat with vivid green eyes.  I had a great picture to work from, and really enjoyed working on this painting.  In a perfect world, all my paintings would start from photos with lighting this great!  This painting was etsy worthy, so prints in multiple sizes are up for grabs on my Etsy Shop.

Pet Collage

Original photoshopped collage

First layers and detail

More layers and detail

Finished!

This is my first commission with four subjects!  It was a lot of work!  A painting with multiple subjects like this is basically like painting multiple paintings, but trying to make them work on the same page.  This means that you have to take into account proportion, lighting, overlap, and shadows.  All of this makes for a challenging piece!  But, like always, I had a lot of fun, and I love how this turned out.  The recipient was also very happy :) 

Scooby!

Reference Photo

Drawing

First Layers



Mostly Done

 

 

 

Scooby- you are too cute, and you were really fun to paint.  And I have a soft spot just for you cause my old dog was nicknamed Scooby too! 

 

 I feel like I've been painting a lot of darker dogs lately, so this was a refreshing change of pace.  It is a gift for my husband's cousin's aunt!  :)  Painting all that thin long fur was my favorite part, or maybe the background was...  Either way, I'm still as busy as ever, looking forward to two more commissions due by Christmas (yikes!) and spending some time with my mom this Saturday at the Mayo Craft Show.  Hope to see you there!

Cooper

Reference Photo

Drawing

First washes and eye and nose detail

Layers

More Layers

More layers, detail, and background wash

Final Detail and background work 

Finished!

Here is Cooper!  He is a super cute French Bulldog that took me way too long to paint :)  Not that I actually spent a ton of time putting paint to paper, but I just couldn't find the time to paint!  Between school, a new job, and keeping up with Eilie (and squeezing in Zuzka workouts in preparation for our Mexico trip) it was hard to find the quiet time I needed to focus on painting.  But I really enjoyed painting, as always, and now I need to get started on my next commission!