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In 2018 I challenged myself to paint a dog. I had never done an animal portrait before. This ended up creating a new hobby and a small side gig. What could be better than doggos, art, and money?
Process:
The first, and most important, step in a successful pet portrait is choosing a good set of reference photos. Without a good reference photo selection, I will not take the commission.
Next, I load the image into Corel Painter. (I also have used Adobe Photoshop and other applications. I can adapt between them, but found I prefer Painter for the animal portraits. I prefer Clip Studio Paint for human portraits.)
I LOVE having the ability to have a set of reference images to work from. I can use them to ensure proper placement of the nose, eyes, ears, and other distinguishing features that turn the piece from a generic dog to a specific dog.
Using the reference as a guide I end up with something like this:
![](https://zethpugh.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/12/26805124_1939273273056049_1577415725486990888_n.jpg)
It may not look like much, but this guide is very helpful for the next steps.
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I have roughly (ruff-ley?) blocked in the colors for the fur that I will paint in later.
Next, I developed the eyes, tongue, and nose a bit more and then put a background color behind the dog. You’ll see just how ugly this gets in a moment.
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I have seen many artists give up at this point. The ugly middle point. I have learned to enjoy seeing artwork transform itself throughout the process.
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That color blocking is now working in my favor as I start to focus on the fur.
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This is the teaser image that I shared with Riley’s owner. I had to make sure I marked it work in progress to discourage early posting and sharing. Once the eyes have some life in them people get very excited.
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Viola! The final social media image. The client also received a digital file without watermarks for printing.