This digital painting demo was created way back in November for a Christmas pet portrait order. In this demo, I show the whole screen including the software palettes and my reference images. I use an older version of Corel Painter (from 2019). My current system is a bit slow for the latest versions. Typical of software these days, there’s a lot of feature bloat in the newer versions anyway. The final size of this portrait …
Hiking With Dogs
The Missus and I love to go hiking with dogs. Usually our hiking season is July – early September, but this year it will be scaled back a bit. Why? Beorn, our Bernese Mountain Dog, is recovering from his second knee surgery in two years. He needs time to build his strength back. Hudson looking forward to hiking and more porcupines Hudson, however is ready to go at any time. He loves getting out in …
English Springer Spaniel Portrait of Gracie
Portrait of Gracie, an English Springer Spaniel. This was a 2020 Christmas commission.
Pet Portrait Commission of Bandit
This pet portrait commission of Bandit, a pug (I think) was one of two dog paintings ordered by the same customer as Christmas gifts. Created as digital art, the final paintings were delivered to the customer on stretched canvas, ready-to-hang.
Was Larry the Best Dog Ever?
While he was with us, we had no doubt that Larry was the best dog ever. Time (and several newer dogs) have tempered that sentiment somewhat. It’s not that Larry has gone down in status, he’s simply got more competition. Larry was our first dog. We were married in the fall of 1992. In the spring of 1993 The Missus brought Larry home. At the time I was just starting my home-based design studio and …
Bella and Maggie, a Christmas Commission
Another Christmas commission pet portrait; this time of two lovely Labrador Retrievers, Bella and Maggie
Brooks and Roscoe
A Christmas commission. Using separate photos as reference images can sometimes be a challenge.
Cole, a Curly Pet Portrait
This is Cole, a particularly curly – and happy – fellow. This regular commission came to me in late October, just before the Christmas rush, so I’m including it in my Christmas commissions list anyway because once I finished it, the orders came pouring in. The client only supplied one photo, not normally a good thing. But in this case it was a clear, well-lit photo that I was able to work with. In order …
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 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 …
Pet Portrait Commission: Sydney
For this pet portrait commission of Sydney, a charming Black Lab, I used two photos as reference. In one he was dressed for St. Patrick’s day, looking into the camera wearing a green feathery luau thingy around his neck and a goofy headdress with two green Irish top-hats on springs (I’m not judging, we’ve all been there). As charming as it was, the customer requested that the St. Paddy’s gear not be included in the …