Kona, step-by-step and finished!

Kona's owners asked me to paint Kona at the beach since that was her favorite place in the whole world.  Wonderfully, I love the beach too, and love painting it.  Here is how Kona was done step-by-step, starting with the actual photo from which I worked.

First thing I did was crop the photograph.

Do the drawing.

Start the eyes.

Normally I do the nose next, but I was having trouble seeing the nose. 

So I started doing the tongue.  

I also put in some blues and browns I saw in the face.

Added in more colors.  

This photo looks lighter because it was taken during the day.

I started doing the nose. 

Since I was having trouble seeing the nose, the owners sent me a photo that showed the nose more.  They also requested I add in more gray to the muzzle area to show her age a little more.

Here is a glimpse of how I work.  I print out a photo copy of the actual face, and I work also with an iPad.  The iPad allows me to focus in on detail you normally wouldn't see.  Such a great artist's tool!  

I started to add in the darks.  For many this is the scary part, and working in pastels, it can get quite messy....QUITE messy...haha!

Starting to shape the planes of the face.

Working my way around the portrait not focusing in on one area at all. 

At this point I was not happy with the eyes at all, the dog had sweet eyes...but my last two dogs I created were police dogs...that have that eye of the tiger in them!

Finished out more of the fur, which takes so much time.  

I made a two part collage at this phase and compared the actual photo and what I've created to this point, and I found 30 things I needed to change...little changes that would capture this dog's personality, not just the breed.

And I made the corrections and found even more as I worked.  I feel her eyes look kinder now.  

I added a sky with about three different color blues, and a ton of white.  I also created some faint clouds which don't get picked up well with a cel phone camera...but they are there.  

I sent this photo to the owners to give them an idea of how big the portrait is.  

Here is a suggestion on how it could be framed.  They could trim it anywhere they'd like.  The size of it like this is 16" high and 18" wide.  

Let me tell you, I love it.