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Animals Oil Painting

Millie, A Dog Portrait Oil Painting


Painting this was a labor of love: love for my sweet Formosan Mountain dog Millie who has come a long way (literally and figuratively) and love of painting. Millie was rescued from the streets of Taiwan as a 4 month old feral pup and flown to SF with some other rescued pups. You can see the steps as I painted Millie below…

Portrait of Millie, oil on Gessobord panel, 10x8 inches
Portrait of Millie, oil on Gessobord panel, 10×8 inches

This painting was a labor of love: love for my sweet Formosan Mountain dog Millie who has come a long way (literally and figuratively) and love of painting. Millie was rescued from the streets of Taiwan as a 4 month old feral pup and flown to SF with some other rescued pups. She was very fearful and independent (e.g. standoffish and stubborn) at first, but after one year together she is now a very happy pooch who makes me laugh every day with her quirky ways.

I love painting dogs, and gladly accept commissions to paint animals of any kind (including humans). You can see photos of the work in progress as I painted Millie below.

I started with some sketches (posted here previously) and then took photos of her in the studio to paint from. (The little bow on her collar was from Mud Puppies Tub and Scrub at Pt. Isabel after they washed off the sticky brown mud from her dive into the bay at low tide). I did a drawing on tracing paper from my favorite of the photos, corrected the drawing by taping it to the iMac monitor to compare to the reference photo and then transferred the drawing to a Gessobord using Saral Transfer Paper. I used Panpastels for the first block in and then began painting with oils, starting with her face.

25 replies on “Millie, A Dog Portrait Oil Painting”

Great work Jana. That is sooo good – I can almost feel her beautiful soft coat! What a very lucky dog Millie is! After her beginning, fancy her luck in finding you. What a lovely story! After all your patience and understanding, it must be wonderful to see and feel the rewards.
We are going through a similar experience with our 7 year old cat we saved from the RSPCA here in Melbourne, Australia. We have had him since September, and he is still so very aloof and independent. The longest he has sat on our knee is no longer than 3 mins, and even then you can feel that he is working out his escape route. We just hope that given time he will learn to love us too. We are certainly here for the L O N G haul, and will not give up. – Continued good luck with Millie – and your painting! Susan.

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Thank you Susan. Yeah, it’s hard to know what kind of scary life they’ve had before. Millie has overcome so much of fear and now sees people as sources of pets and play. She doesn’t shy away as much from strangers (though she’ll bark like crazy if they come to the door). Good luck with your kitty. One of mine is still aloof and I’ve had him 8 years.

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Awww, I love Millie…both the dog and her portrait. I also loved seeing your progress photos. I’m curious since I don’t work in oils. Why do you use the pan pastels to start and then switch over to oils?

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Hi Carol. The pan pastels are great because they are already dry, they don’t drip, they don’t build up like paint, they’re easily erasable, they go very much like paint, the colors get absorbed into the paint without muddying it, and unlike doing a washy underpainting they don’t stain the canvas.

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Jana, your portrait of Millie is just lovely. What a sweet dog! Beautiful job of capturing her personality!!! – Chris

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Wow, Jana! You got Millie this time! Brilliant! Can we see her photo again to compare? Catherine

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