Dog in Reindeer Costume- Finished Painting

Pretty self explanatory. This was a challenge because I had several photos of a dog-shaped blur to work from, some costumed and some not, but I managed to cobble them together into this very cut dog portrait. I always hate to tell people "these pictures are no good" because I know it's hard to take pictures of animals, and I don't want to be branded as "difficult" to work with. But I was breaking into the Excedrin when this one was done.

New Dog Portrait Complete

Here's the doggy portrait, all done. What a happy little guy playing on the sunshiney grass. It makes me miss summer, bugs and all.

Zombie Portrait Completed

Some juicy pics of the completed zombie portrait. This was exceedingly fun to do. I hope I get more adventurous commissions like this in the future.

Zombie Couple Progress Pics

This is my first zombie portrait, which seems strange, considering the company I keep. And these aren't even people I know, I got this commission through etsy. I decided the best way to go about it would be to try to do a straightforward portrait first and then "zombie" it up. Here is some of my progress.

Zombie Couple

I made a bid to do a portrait of a couple as zombies, but the commission is not yet firm. Here is the rough sketch I worked up as a means of throwing my hat into the ring. If I get the job, I will surely post the development of the portrait here.

Vintage Photo Reproduction

Sometimes when I sit down to paint, it's like the visage was already in my brush, and I barely had to do any sort of work at all to make the resemblance come out. That was not the case here. I had to struggle with it a bit. At first I made the hair a little too robust, it looked a little David Lynch. Then the mouth too wide, the jaw too narrow, and on and on. So I remodeled and repainted and measured and matched and turned the thing upside down, used a viewfinder, and I feel like I have a really good handle on it now. Sometimes I find it hard to reconcile the fuzziness of the vintage photo with the decisiveness of making brushstrokes with paint.


I think by the end, I have a very nice portrait, and I was able to remodel and capture some of the youthfulness in the very serious face. I hope the client will be pleased. It was a fun challenge, and I'd like to do more of these.