Watch a time-compressed video showing me painting a portrait of Tally, a beautiful Golden Retriever. Time: 3 and a half minutes.
Charming Chuy Terrier Portrait
This is smilin’ Chuy. Like most little dogs, he makes up for a lack of physical stature by means of a massive personality. I love this portrait! Let me tell you why. First off, you can’t look at Smilin’ Chuy without smiling back. I think I captured his happy nature with this portrait. Secondly, in terms of technique, I love the sense of depth I created by carefully placing dark areas next to lighter areas. …
Hobee the Basset Hound
This is Hobee the Basset Hound. Not much to say about this happy fella, except I really like the coloring. Specifically, the way the bright blue background sets off the orangey tone of his head. I added electric orange tones on his cheeks that create a nice glowing effect, making the shadows more interesting. Since I use photos as references, it’s tempting to simply copy whatever I see there. But that’s not how I work. …
Thinking of Boris
My yearly tribute to Boris, our big black Mastador who passed in 2019, this time featuring a new graphite portrait of the big guy.
Dreamer & Izzy; Two Irish Setters
It’s been a long time since I’ve posted anything, let alone a pet portrait. To be honest, after Christmas portrait orders fell off a cliff and haven’t bounced back yet. I think the economy is forcing people to cut back on the frills. At any rate, here is one of my absolute favorite Christmas portraits from last year. This is Dreamer and Izzy. The owner sent me a bunch of very good photos to use …
Setter portrait in snow
Harvey was a local commission as a birthday gift.
Milo
This portrait of Milo shows how important the eyes are to a portrait. Get ’em right and you’re golden. Get ’em wrong and you’ll never be satisfied with the painting.
Painting Max, a puppy and his stick
Max is a happy puppy with a stick. This is a portrait commission from early 2021.
Puppy playtime in the snow
The fight for dominance is fierce as these two evenly matched puppies battle for alpha status in a snowy cage match. Two enter. Two leave, but with biscuit treats.
Digital Painting Demo of Brooks
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 …