This painting of a Blue Merle Cockapoo came with several special requests. My client asked me to paint her dog as if it was sticking its head out of a ball playpen. She also wanted me to include two of her pet's favorite toys. I started with a black and white underpainting and slowly added in all the balls for this large 20x24in painting.
This time around I like to get all the colorful balls in place before concentrating on the pet's head. The dog's head has to stick out and I am thinking of manipulating the cast shadows in thin layers of darker paint over the colorful balls. To do that though I will need to have all the balls fully painted in. Getting all the balls to be the same size has become a challenge and has taken up a lot of my time. I will post as soon as I have more to show.
