Dog Portraits Information

I love producing dog portraits because you can put so much character into the artwork. I suppose it is because I am such a dog fan and they always seem to have those wonderful little peculiarities to their characters.

If you have a dog, or more than one, I would love to be the artist you choose to produce it's portrait.

Portrait of Tom, Labrador by Joanna Culley

Click to enlarge Golden Labrador portrait

I specialise in creating an effect of 'realism' in a painting, which is where I make the dog look as life-like as possible. This is done with putting in the background colours of the dog as washes, and then using a very fine brush in order to pick up the individual hairs and capture the detail around the eye. In fact, I will also start to paint the eyes first, because once this is right, the rest of painting falls into place. I like to paint on a white background on Hot Press best quality paper and artist materials to ensure you have a piece of work that will last.

If the distance is manageable, I will always come and take photos of your dog as I have a professional digital camera. This ensures that I can take a large collection of pictures and find one that shows off your dog. Ones where the dog is looking alert is often the best. Although, if the detail is there, any pose will suffice. I also like to save all the pictures onto disk and give to my customer as a bonus gift.