Custom Oil Painting of Dog

This is a Custom Painting of a client’s girlfriend’s dog. He commissioned me to paint this as a gift to her. I thought it was such a sweet gesture! He only had one photo to give me, and the image didn’t have the best lighting or angle. So I did some sketches, adding details from an online reference photo, until I could work with a more complete picture.

This Painting was done on Grumbacher Plyex Canvas Foundation Board Primed with Hyplar Gesso. I used the following Grumbacher Oil Paint Colors: Titanium White, Naples Yellow, Yellow Ochre, Nickel Titanate Yellow, Raw Sienna, Arctic Blue, Terra, Van Dyke Brown and Black. A lot of colors for a ‘white dog’!

Starting with a light wash to get the shapes down first – the next layer created the shadows and highlights. The warm glow on this pup’s coat was just beautiful. And it’s eyes were so full of ‘eager to please’ – eyes are always so challenging to capture. And Painting animals is one of my very favorite things to do.

’ve always struggled with the heart-breaking reality of our pets not living as long as we do. Don’t you wish our time with them wasn’t so fleeting? If you have a pet (or know someone who has one) that you would like to memorialize in a painting – please give me a call. I’ve even painted pets on rocks that are placed in gardens. Look for a future post on some rock paintings that I’ve done.