The Eyes Have it

Let's talk about dog eyes!

I've been buried painting pet portrait Christmas gifts all of November with absolutely no time to blog. Tonight, I'm taking a moment to post a portrait from way back in May of this year, and I'll have more to say about my busy November once I finalize my commissions.

The thing I love most about painting pet portraits is when I can successfully convey the personality of the pet. It depends a lot on the photos that are submitted. If they give me a broad range of looks and lighting conditions, it makes my job easier. And I can usually enhance a personality through lighting and relying on my experience in painting different poses and such.

In my mind, the key to capturing the personality of a dog is all in the eyes. If I can nail the look of a beloved pet's eyes, nine times out of ten the client will love it.

Sometimes, I get a photo that needs very little in the way of artistic enhancement. Hugo is a case in point. The client submitted decent photos, but this pose stood out for obvious reasons. The original had the eyes slightly obscured in shadow, but I wanted them to stand out so I painted them as the center of interest, and… wow! I love those dog eyes!

There are two other aspects of this painting that I really like.

The added colors in the fur patterns add interest and rhythm to the portrait, and the complimentary color scheme of the background blue and foreground orange/gold provide compositional balance to the piece.

Hugo (digital, 16x16)