This past Spring I agreed to donate a pet portrait as a fund raiser raffle for the RAL Art Center held at a local brewery around the corner from the Art Center. I could not attend and it took a while before I found out contact information for the winner.

We finally connected by phone and email and it was about the time the dog’s owner was off on a trip and I was entering a series of appointments for preparations for my cervical fusion. Long story, short; we ended up postponing the photo session with her dog until after my surgery and after the Art Heist which I chaired this year for the Art Center.

Finally, I got out to meet Fin, the very patient and calm Labrador retriever who had, apparently, gotten very grey around the face in the last year. His owner asked, half joking I think, if there was a way to make him look a little younger, without all the white. I told her I would see what I could do.

So, here are the photos I took of Fin. Of these, I chose five and sent them via email to Fin’s owner. She and her husband picked one.

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This is the photo they picked:

Here is the palette I chose to put together for this painting with Titanium White in the big tube on the bottom. I added Warm White as well:

So, here is the progression of the painting over the course of the next several days:

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Early on I knew I wanted to capture the sense of his tail wagging and so kept those edges very soft. I also loved the reflection of the window in his eye. And as you can tell, I eliminated all of the white from his face except the two white hairs over his right eye that his owner said he had from puppyhood.

So here is the final, assuming they approve it.