Pet Portraits - Jake!

I spent some time over the last week working on a commissioned piece for a friend - this was a first for me in many ways, but it was so much fun to put my skills to practice, and to come up with a portrait I'm really proud of! Here's Jake:

I decided to work on matboard, because it's got a great texture, and it's very durable for lots of layers of color. I did my underpainting with watercolors, just to get the blocks of color where I wanted them, and to avoid having white show through where the dog just wasn't white.

From there I moved to colored pencil, and I found that I preferred the harder, oil-based lead of Polychromos pencils. I do have a few other brands mixed in though! These are the colors that I used:

Here's a picture mid-process - if you ever want to follow the progress of my work, please follow me on Instagram! I love sharing over there, and I've got another project ready to go! Here I've started deepening the color in the face and adding in details. I really had to start with the eyes, to give him some life and personality.

After more patient layering, I worked my way down, finishing off with that gorgeous thick ruff. Such a beautiful boy.

If you're interested in having a pet portrait done, please contact me - I'd be happy to work with you!