Rachel - Commissioned Dog Portrait, Part III

Got a lot done today; it was a beautiful day. Finished the background...

...and started on Rachel.

I tilted Rachel's head a little; she looks more relaxed this way.

I'm often ask by owners of white or pale coloured dogs to disregard the staining around the mouth or eyes. It is, after all, not part of the dogs natural markings - besides, don't we all want to look our best when we are immortalised on canvas. Artificial colouring in dog food is the culprit in Rachel's case.

Rachel has a nice bright red collar in her photograph, but it's too distracting for the painting's colour composition, so I changed it to a warm tan. I have to work on the eyes more and I still have to do a lot more waves, curls and layering in Rachel's coat, all while doing highlights and shading, but it's going very well.