Cute Furry Animals

Wild Harry 8x10

Here is a portrait of Harry the cat. He belongs to the friend of a friend, and she asked for me to paint this picture of him outside.  She calls it "Wild Harry".  It's an interesting thing painting white fur, or white ANYthing for that matter. Because, as we previously discussed on this blog, white is never really "white".

Painting pet portraits from photos is often a crap shoot. You can get some really lousy photos or some really good ones, which can make the process a nightmare or pleasurable, respectively.

On a random note, that's a ponderosa pine trunk there by Harry. Did you know that if you put your nose right up close to the cracks in the bark, there is a strong smell of vanilla?  Next time you are visiting New Mexico, try it!

Spyke 5x7

Spyke belongs to the daughter of Harry's mom.  ??? Does that make them related?  I had much less to work with for Spyke's portrait, only a head shot, inside on a couch.Not even the front legs.  I had to completely invent a background, and invent the rest of her body, and try to guess on markings from what little I could see in the photo.  This one is also smaller, only 5x7.  And actually, I made some adjustments to this that didn't get photographed, and did improve things but this photo will have to do. I enjoy painting these little critters, and try to put a little "art" in there besides what shows up in the photo.  

Mattie in the Pasture

This is little Mattie, a rescue Collie who belongs to a good friend. She is a beautiful dog, and sweet as can be. She unfortunately has arthritis quite badly, and doesn't get around very well. But we were on a walk out in my friend's beautiful pasture, and I snapped this shot of Mattie in the sunlight.  Her "brother" Collie, Cisco, a gorgeous tri-color, was too quick and I could never get a photo of him. I'll keep trying,

And maybe one of these days, I will paint these goofballs. They really need to mellow out, don't you think?