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Animals Oil Painting Painting

Dillon, a Dog Portrait Commission


Now that Christmas is over I can post this commissioned dog portrait painting. The person who requested it had previously been gifted a commissioned dog portrait and asked me to paint their friend’s dog Dillon to give to them as a gift. Below are the steps in the process.

Dog Portrait of Dillon, oil on Gessobord panel, 8x8"
Dog Portrait of Dillon, oil on Gessobord panel, 8×8″

Now that Christmas is over I can post this commissioned dog portrait oil painting. The person who requested it had previously been gifted this commissioned dog portrait and asked me to paint their friend’s dog Dillon to give to them as a gift. Below are the steps in the process.

12 replies on “Dillon, a Dog Portrait Commission”

Do you pick the colors to mix with the color dabs indicated on the monitor ? It seems to be a great idea in the sense of simplifying color choices. May I ask what app or program,(s), you use. Thank you. Your work is wonderful and fun!

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Hi Barbara, I do that in Photoshop by using the paintbrush tool and switching back and forth using the option key which turns it into the eyedropper to select a color and then clicking with the paintbrush tool without the option key to paint a spot of the selected color (on a separate layer so I can turn off the spots or the photo). I do this when I’m having trouble recognizing the colors and values and I’m seeing. I’m often surprised when I see them on screen like that, sometimes with more color or value range than I thought and other times less.

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What a lovely character this dog has and you captured it beautifully. I was wondering how long it takes to do a portrait like this from start to finish and do you take your own photos for reference.

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Thanks Janette. The amount of time depends on the size of the painting, the quality of the photo, and whether the muses are with me. Sometimes a painting just works and other times I fuss endlessly, correcting things, “improving” things, etc. In this case it went pretty well, probably took about 5 hours, including the initial drawing and all the layers. I much prefer to work from my own photos but with commissioned dog portraits that rarely is the case since often they’re requested as gifts for someone else so it’s secret or the dog owner lives somewhere else. I love painting dogs!

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I find the finished “Dillon” to be QUITE expressive!
While the eyes are non-threatening, they ARE alert!
Though I don’t paint, I imagine the eyes-issue would become a
difficult line for ME to have stayed on one side of…

Bravo!

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Thanks Cotton! Painting eyes are usually my favorite part, especially when they have lots of cool reflections and variations in color. These didn’t have that, with the photo being taken indoors, maybe with a flash, but even so, they are still the windows to the soul and Mr. Dillon definitely has soul! I’m wondering what you meant about “staying on one side of…”

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“staying on one side”… I most likely would have either overcorrected or undercorrected my attempt at eyes…

but, I would be tempted to put something HUMAN in the eyes, anyway… maybe it’s only ’cause I’m single… always lookin’ for love [grin].

The other day, I had a horse whinny at me while I was riding my bicycle. He was in a trailer, and ‘felt’ me near. I said aloud, “I can only peddle so fast…” As I neared, the guy driving the truck had a “who’s THIS guy?” look in his eyes [grin]. I get along best with animals in a non-verbal manner… mostly, the feeling I get from animals is near-to “oh, YOU again???” LOL

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