Annie portrait in progress 6 - The "Princess collar"

In the original photo Annie was wearing a bandana, which the clients asked me to remove. I asked if they wanted a particular collar on her, or no collar. Carolyn requested that she be wearing "a princess collar because she is a princess”. I photographed my Sara’s “party collar” and sent the clients two rough Photoshop layouts, with suggestions of either pink or turquoise, which I felt were good colors to compliment Annie's coloring.

In the artwork I straightened out the bow ribbons a bit. And I didn’t notice when I took this pic that the heart pattern on the collar was upside-down! So I made the hearts right-side up in the artwork, and equally spaced apart. The pattern of hearts on this collar didn’t work well in the artwork at the tiny size created with very sharp pencils. 

The clients chose turquoise for Annie’s “princess collar".  In the original photo she was wearing a turquoise bandana, which they wanted me to remove. Turquoise is a good color for her. 

I usually think patterned collars on dogs are going to go fast and easy.

I am usually wrong.

Adding the collar took a full studio-day.  

These are the pencil colors I used.

🎨 Prismacolor pencil on “Felt Grey” Canson Mi-Teintes paper. 18 x 23 inches.

"Annie" in progress

Commissioned by Carolyn Martini, Gloria Kehoe, and Tammy Cunningham.