Meet my latest addition to my #petportrait series! Internet, this is the witty, awesomely fluffy, and adorable, Mr. Cody ;-)
I really enjoyed painting this little guy, but he definitely was a bit of a challenge:

I struggled with the background just a bit. Although I love the vibrant reds, I felt the color combination was a bit strong for this pup. He's 13 years old and is super smart. That's why I chose the dusty rose, a bit more subdued, elegant, and calm.

His right eye was missing a little touch of light as well, even though the photo my client sent me showed nothing but black.

 Sometimes, it's that little addition, that artist license, offering an opportunity to push the image pass the photo into something more.

obviously this pic screams, "I'm not even close yet!!" But this is the point that I realized I needed to take extra care in fluffing up the top of his head, and let his ears be more "stringy". I bended the background color at the top to soften the fuzz, and added detailed strokes (only a few) to enhance his floppy ears.

Thank you for stopping by :-)

 Yay! It's approved! I'm always flattered when someone wants to commission me to paint a portrait of their furbaby, especially when they plan to give it as a gift to a loved one. It took me a bit to get this pup's eyes just right, but in the end I'm very pleased with how he turned out :-) I think what did it for me, was to not add white to his eyes. Look closely. I used greyish blues to bring in the light source.

Thanks for stopping by, until next time!