On a Roll - Another Dog Portrait Finished

This sweet girl was Cali, the beloved and much-missed terrier mix of Rachele, the owner of Pawsitive Attention Pet Services in Sacramento, CA. I have yet to meet Rachele in person; we "met" through Facebook and she e-mailed a couple of photos of Cali as reference for the portrait. I'll meet her soon enough though, when I deliver the portrait.

I’ll be honest, the photos provided were not the greatest, but since Cali had passed, it was all I had. This factor determined the style of portrait. I wouldn’t have been able to do a really detailed portrait, but one in this style worked out nicely. Here's the reference photo:


And here are two images of the painting in progress:



I had intended her darkest areas to be a darker purple, but a tactical error (when I painted dark orange over the purple) resulted in a rich brown color, which actually worked out well. I have learned over the years that sometimes things just happen and not to fret over it - just work with it. The British phrase “keep calm and carry on” comes to mind in these situations. After I finished with the watercolor, I layered some purple color pencil over the darkest parts and added a very light watercolor wash of orange over most of her nose to warm the purple and to harmonize the colors.

I won't bore you with all the materials used for this portrait. If you're curious, please read the previous post where you'll see two other portraits done in the same style/technique.

Next on my list to finish are the wolfhound (see it in progress here) in mixed media and the horse in pencil from the previous post. I've also started on an ink on scratchboard drawing of a golden retriever.