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Bonnie, the middle cat is finished, and I'm working on the third cat, Morgan. When Tammy asked for a portrait of her three cats and sent photos to me, one of them showed two of her cats on stairs. That gave Tammy the great idea for this portrait with each of the three cats on its own step. Two of the cats are still living, Grace and Bonnie. Morgan has gone ahead to the Rainbow Bridge. This is Morgan: “Three Cats on Stairs” (Grace, Bonnie, and Morgan) Commissioned by Tammy Cun

Last week I shared the three portraits Greg and Theresa Chan commissioned of Westminster Best in Show winning Doberman, Penny, to be given as surprise gifts to members of “Team Penny”. We began working on the portrait for Octavia in January….before Penny won Westminster! (Westminster was to be the last show of her impressive career.) The creation of a portrait always starts with choosing the right photos to use for reference. 1 The Chans suggested this photo of Octavia with P

I love doing white fur on gray paper. It's so easy. The gray paper creates the shadows between hairs or clumps of hairs. Here's a closer view that shows what I'm talking about. White and two shades of light-grey pencils were used (French Grey 10% and French Grey 20%) to make the strokes that created the white parts of Bonnie's coat. The grey paper color was left showing to make the shadows between the hairs. I only added some darker grey in a few places like the center of Bon

Working on Bonnie, the second cat on the stairs. This photo was taken in the studio while I was working on Bonnie's eyes. The photo second from the left on the monitor is my main reference for her face. But I’m using the others to see eye color, and double-check the shape of her eyes. They have better color and better detail than the main photo. The more reference photos a portrait artist has of their subject, the better. One photo can be deceptive because of the lighting or

Remember Penny, the Doberman who won Westminster? In January Greg and Theresa Chan commissioned me to create 3 portraits of Penny to be given as surprise gifts to "Team Penny". In February Penny won Westminster, and the commission became even more special. A commemoration of a historic achievement. It took 3 months to create the portraits. They were kept secret until they were gifted to the recipients. Now I can finally share them! I’ll share the creation of these portraits o