Dog Portrait - Kujo

Kujo is in the house. This is a little portrait of my friend Susan's dog that she commissioned me to do for her sweetie. I think this pup is such a handsome guy. The sun is shining so brightly outside I couldn't photograph the drawing so I had to scan it. Unfortunately the scan doesn't do it justice. However, I'd pick a beautiful day over photographing art anytime. Hope the sun is shining where you live!

What the Hell Is This?

Don't you see a magnificent painting happening here? You think I'm nuts? That's beside the point. What you see here is the development stages of my painting for Canine Partners for Life's wine auction. I've decided to paint larger than usual and went for a 24x30 inch canvas. The image will be new born pups nestled in grape vines. I have the drawing of the 15 lab pups all sleeping together finished. I cut out one pup from my sketch to show you here. Then my dear friend Denise helped me create imaginary puppies out of socks and polar fleece and surrounded them with craft store foliage. (That was her brilliant idea. She's a witty one.) We only needed a few grapes and leaves and just moved them around the "pups" and photographed them so that I could paste it all together in Photoshop. Now I will take this picture, along with some photo reference of some juicy grapes and an old painting I did of grapes and leaves in college and create a beautiful stylized drawing around my finished drawing of the pups. When that is complete next week I will go for the canvas! I can't wait.

At the same time I am also working on a commission of a dog portrait. The dog's name is Kujo. I will share that as that gets closer to finish. Also on the easel is my second self portrait that is in the drawing stages. If you would like to see a photo of the first one finished, email me and I will be happy to share it with you.

Stay warm and dry on this rather nasty Valentine's Day. I'm just warming up after having lost power for a few hours. Poor Gracie was getting cold!