Latest Pet Portrait

Ginny, oil, 14x11

Here is the latest commission completed in time for Christmas! I have only a few progression photos as I actually used a clean, white canvas for this painting. That was hard. I have come to the conclusion that I enjoy carving out the image (like a sculptor?) rather than drawing in. This dog had so much white that I thought it might show better if she were painted on a clean canvas. I have not yet colored any white canvases but it has crossed my mind to go back to that. I started out my painting career doing that.
The commission was to join two images. Using the dog from one image and the background from another image with Ginny in it. In the first image, she is sitting on a wicker chair on a porch. That is the dog image I used. The second image Ginny is coming out of a patch of Hostas. So originally, as you can see in the image below, she was going to be in the Hostas. They were eventually going to be covering her chest and legs and leave her head and shoulders above the plants. I wanted to ground her before doing that so she did not look like a floating torso so I painted her in full body. Once I showed the client the second painting below with ALL the green blocked in yet still not covering her body I gave them the option to not do that and have here sitting in dirt in front of the plants. I did stylize the plants as I did not want them to take over from her as the main focal point.

The two lower images were shot in my studio so have warmer lighting. The finished painting was shot outdoors in natural lighting.