Pet Portrait of Bella, a Yellow Lab

Here's a screen-capture of a recent pet portrait commission of Bella, a lovely yellow lab. The actual portrait took about six hours, but I've compressed it all down to a nifty three and a half minutes. I composed a special musical background for this piece using Apple's Logic music creation software. I'm a musical imbecile, but the program has tons of loops to play with.

The customer for this portrait found me via WilderWealthyWise, a blog I visit regularly (and you should too). I don't remember posting any comments about my pet portraits there. John Wilder (the proprietor of the blog) may have linked to me in a post a while back. Nevertheless, it was a pleasant surprise to gain a commission that way.

As for the pet portrait, I love how the image of this yellow lab progresses in the video. The client, Jeff, provided an especially clear photo to use as a reference. It lacked some shadow details, but I was able to create the necessary shadows as I painted to better establish depth.

Over all, this portrait went very smooth. Even some of the early stages look great.

I hope you enjoy watching these. Let me know in the comments below.

Thanks for watching, and don't forget that now is a great time to give the gift of a pet portrait. Once December arrives, it gets a bit harder to deliver by Christmas. Of course, I have an easy solution: I'm now selling Pet Portrait Gift Certificates.

These are perfect gifts! We all know pet lovers, but we don't always have photos of their pets. This way, you can let the pet owner themselves pick the best shots and work with me for their portrait. I don't know why I didn't think of this before!

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About the Author

topdog

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Topdog is Steve Merryman, a graphic designer (retired), and illustrator. Living in the woods, Steve can often be found working on portrait commissions. In his spare time he paints, writes, shoots guns, cuts trees, hikes with his dogs, savors a beer or two, and searches for the perfect cheeseburger. He tries to avoid social media and is occasionally without pants.

Almost Dailies: