So this little King Charles looks nice and comfy! Painted using a palette of Titanium White, Pthalo Blue, Cadmium Yellow, and Magenta I wanted to keep this lively so used a No.6 flat hog hair to quickly put in the background and blanket and then used a No.4 Filbert to sketch in and put most of the detail into the dog. I then finished with a No.1 Round brush for the details - hair and eyes. All in all about 3 hours work.

I was spoilt for choice when painting this breed, as I had several submits of German Shepherds, so I guess it must still be a popular breed. The photo I chose was submitted by Millie King. This is her dog 'Trip', so called because apparently he tends to lie where people literally fall over him! As Trip has a lot of features which are defined by his fur, I built up layers and layers of tones starting from dark and ending with the highlights. For the fur I used a fan brush and dipped the tips into a farily dry mix of paint. I then brushed it onto the painting in the direction of the fur, giving it texture, and form through tone. I had deceide at the outset that this was not going to be photorealistic, so worked very quickly. The only part where I used a smaller brush for detail is the eyes. Unfortunately the photo had red eye so I had to amend this using other reference pictures. My palette was Ultramarine, Cadmium Yellow, Cadmium Red, Magenta and Titamium White.
Time taken - Approx 6 hrs

'Tia' is a Fox Terrier owned by Lisa Merner, and is the princess of the family. I had several photo's submitted and although Tia is not looking directly at the camera, I thought that with this breed of dog, you get a better shape from the side view. She is looking at her owner, out of view, which makes you wonder what has captured her attention. I used a palette knife in the initial stages, building up the texture of her fur. I then painted in her markings, and went back over the fur making sure the light and shade worked in the right places, to depict her frame. Using a scratching technique in the background I added Pthalo Blue and used a wash of this on the top of her head where it reflects the wall behind. I deliberately left the collar very basic, as the fact that it is red draws attention to it anyway, and I wanted the viewer to move from the collar to the face and then through the background. I hope it works! I used a palette of Pthalo Blue, Magenta, Cadmium Red Hue, Titanium White and Yellow Ochre.
TIme taken - Approx 10 hrs