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I’m starting a portrait of “Casey”, a Top 25 Papillon. “Papillon” is French for “butterfly”. Their ears resemble butterfly wings. Doug asked me to include colorful butterflies in the portrait. This post describes how I designed the layout and background with Doug’s input. 1 Doug sent about 20 photos. This was his favorite of Casey, taken at the 2026 Papillon National. Photo by Alexandria Darienzo (Lexi D Photography) 2 These photos show Casey’s ears the best. Since I am not s

“Three Cats on Stairs” (Grace, Bonnie, and Morgan). My client's photo of Bonnie and Morgan waiting for her on the stairs to her bedroom gave Tammy the idea to portray her three cats on stairs. Grace and Bonnie are still alive. Morgan has gone on ahead to the Bridge. My final touches on the stairs: — After I created the wooden moldings on the front of each step (shared with you in a previous post), the stairs still looked too flat. So I darkened underneath the lowest stair tre

Sometimes creative ideas just don’t work. At the beginning when I was still working on the basic layout for JR's portrait, Diane wrote: “I love the little “V” in his chest…that’s where I scratch him until he falls asleep at night. 🥰” She sent back my layout (Photoshop composite of 3 separate photos) indicating that “V” as a heart so I could see where she meant. When something like that is emotionally meaningful to the client, I feel it’s important to try to convey it in some

“Feet Off the Ground” - the perfect soundtrack! ...and a video of Octavia the moment Penny won Westminster that will make you laugh and cry at the same time. As Andy Linton’s assistant, Octavia traveled with Penny for two years while Penny was being campaigned. She cared for Penny on the road, exercised her, slept with her, and got her ring-ready….through 66 Best in Shows, 40 Reserve Best in Shows, 35 Best in Specialty Shows, and ultimately this historic achievement of Best i

The size of this portrait is 12 x 16 inches, and there are two full figures in it. So some of the details are smaller than my sharpest pencil point! That makes it challenging to get the details of the features accurate. Working at that small size actually makes it easier to do large areas of skin though - like Octavia’s arms - where the artist has to make all the narrow pencil strokes look like a smooth color. And a smooth transition of color (the elbow). Her tattoos were fin