Pet portraits that have landscape settings are my favorite to paint. This dog originally was stretched out in a room.
My client told me that her grandma had a garden full of flowers and that was the starting point for the backdrop of this painting. I usually go for more subdued backdrops but have to say with this painting the bold red, yellows and greens actually work really well.
As always the painting started with a quick block in and from there paint was applied to create the textures.
The eyes were not visible, so I brought them back to life. The dog has a cute underbite that is hinted at. I purposely did not make the teeth show too much, because it was distracting and not really necessary. Instead, I built up the hairs around the mouth.
