This was an exciting commission for me as I haven’t painted an Old English Sheepdog before. My client wanted to surprise her brother as he recently lost this handsome chap.
Sourcing photographs for the commission were proving a problem as we needed to keep this a surprise and she only had a few. We decided the best one was him on the sofa looking at us with his big, brown soulful eyes.
I love pet portraits that are in situ, it gives them some context or tells a story. Some people prefer plain back grounds, either way I can add or take them away. Just ask and I can see what I can do for you or view more dog portraits here to give you an idea of all the different options available.
We decided to take the clutter of the shelves and TV in the background out and just make the sofa and of course Digby the main focus of the portrait.
Here are a few stages of the painting in progress. My client has decided to leave him unframed, but if you want more information on framing you can find it under framing your pet portrait or read my blog post
After looking at Digby’s finished portrait, I decided that cushion looked like it was growing out of his head! This is the beauty of commissioning a pet portrait as I can totally customise it in a way you can’t do easily with a photo.
Here is the finished painting minus the weird black growth coming out of his head Just waiting for my clients approval and Digby will be off to his forever home!