I’ve completed the under painting for Gingie’s portrait this afternoon, it’s coming along quite nicely, and I should be finishing this lovely Beagle portrait by the end of the week.

For those artists out there wondering what my palette is, I’m using all of my standard colors plus one or two: yellow ochre, naples yellow light, magenta, burnt umber, raw umber, burnt sienna, sap green, indigo, french ultramarine and white.

I paint ultra-thin, so my first layer consists of darks and shadows that will give me a good base to start layering various shades of fur in additional layers. Her muzzle and chest will be much, much lighter once those layers of fur have been applied.

Happy Monday!

I’ve finished Gingie’s background and wanted to get that up for you to see – the color is a beautiful sap green lightened with naple’s yellow light, so it’s a wonderful, warm green that will compliment her fawn and white colored coat very nicely. It looks a little cooler in this pic only because I’ve got snow blocking my studio skylights, everything has a cool blue tint to it today. (Snow, snow, go away!)

I’ll post another progress of her under painting once it’s ready!

I’ve got another dog portrait on my easel – this is Max! What a cute little goldie boy – he has been sniffing around where he shouldn’t be so he’s got a bit of dirt on his nose that you’ll see on the final progress of his portrait.

Quite a cute photo to begin with – he’s sitting on a gray cobblestone so I’m wrapping it around to the sides and bringing his tail around to the side, too! This will be a super cute puppy painting that his parents in Sweden will cherish for years to come, even after he’s a full grown dog and not as fond of having dirt on his face!

I’ll be working Max and Gingie’s portraits over the next week or so, alternating days while one is drying, working the other.

Stay tuned for more painting progress shots!

I’m starting the new year off with a new dog portrait! This is Gingie, one of two sweet Beagles that I will be painting portraits of.

I am working Gingie’s portrait on a nice sized canvas, 12″ x 12″ with a 1-3/8″ deep gallery wrap so the edges will be painted as well, and it won’t require framing.

It’s difficult to process the size of the piece – so I placed my brushes beside her sketch on canvas so you can get a better idea how large the portrait is. See that little blue brush leaning off to the right? That’s what I’ll be using to paint her fur. I would venture to guess that her portrait is life sized – if not slightly bigger.

Under painting progress shots coming soon!

I’ve just completed this gorgeous memorial portrait of Effee, a very sweet greyhound who is unfortunately no longer with us.

(update: swapped out images for a daylight photo.)

My schedule got a little wonky there and I lost some time so I’m a little bit behind but working steadily to get caught up again! I still have a week or so available before Christmas so if you’re wanting to gift a portrait to a friend or family member, please do get in touch (use my contact form or quote request form in the menu above), I’d love to paint for you!

I worked a bit more on Effee’s portrait today, getting her under painting complete and enhancing the dark shadows in the rug. She’s coming along quite nicely!

It will be a few days before I can paint in the furs in her coat so check back at the beginning of next week to see the finished painting.

I’ve begun a new dog portrait in oils, Effee. She’s a gorgeous greyhound who recently passed away. It’s such a sweet, peaceful pose. I know I typically share the sketch first, but I went straight into painting without any hesitation to get the background worked in. I have a bit more to do on the rug/blanket that she’s lying on, I’ll do that while I work in her coats under painting.

I’m working this on an 8″ x 10″ canvas panel, so she’ll be matted and framed to a larger finished size.

…and by all means, if you’ve got a project included in my portfolio, feel free to leave a comment! All of my weekly portrait giveaways, blog designs and paintings are present and accounted for.

Happy browsing!

She’s painted in oil on a 6″ x 6″ canvas panel, not a wooden stair, though it does look that way.

I’ll post the scanned portrait once she’s dry and varnished!