watercolor pet portraits: redden & spunk

I finished up the last two pet portraits I had committed to painting prior to Christmas. November and December have been busy months for painting pet portraits because they make such a wonderful and unique gift. Unfortunately, I will not be taking on an more commissions for portraits before Christmas, but gift certificates are available if you want to give some one the gift of a pet portrait for the holiday. And, I will be back at it, business as usual, after Christmas.

On to the portraits...

Redden is a black and chocolate lab who had to be put down shortly before Thanksgiving. Trista commissioned his portrait as a Christmas gift for his Mom, Trista's mother-in-law.

Dark/black dogs often present a challenge because their fur does not always provide the best contrast in tones. It just so happens that was not in issue in this case because the photo that I worked from was taken on a sunny say and at an angle that provided a lot of variation in Redden's coat. The background of the photo was absolutely great, too. The flowers are beautiful and make for a great compliment to Redden's dark coat.

For the portrait, I "zoomed-in" on Redden a little to make the portrait more of his face and flowers, versus the photograph which had quite a bit of deck railing in it as well. Actually painting the background was a little daunting because there was so much detail involved. In fact, there was just a lot of detail in this portrait overall, which made it time-consuming and more painstaking.

I couldn't be happier with how this portrait turned out! I say this about almost every portrait, but this is certainly one of my favorites.

Spunk is also no longer with us and his portrait was commissioned by Orion as a Christmas gift for his Mom. Orion wanted to do the largest sized portrait possible, and I ended up doing an 8x10". An 8x10" is not the largest I can or have done, but based upon the photograph I was working from, I decided an 8x10" was best. A wise decision, an 8x10" allowed for a good amount of detail - any larger of a portrait and I feel I may have had to sacrifice some detail.

Despite how much I love painting, I am glad to have a short break during Christmas. Next week, I am looking forward to slowing down a little in general, from all projects, so that I can fully enjoy and appreciate the holiday with those I love. I will still be blogging everyday, though! :)