Today I'm working on Riley, the golden retriever, a custom painting. It should be an enjoyable painting to work on as I have myself had a golden retriever and know their general personalities and head structure.
Painting dogs (and any other portrait painting, but especially dogs because of the varied hair covering) can be quite difficult: I need to know not only the underlying skull and skin structure of not only the specific dog but specific information about the particular breed of dog being painted, but I need to know the length of hair, how it lies on the head (and body in many instances), and even the general personality of the breed and as much information as I can get about the personality of the individual dog, too.
Most of my paintings are done from photos submitted to me by either custom customers or from customers from whom I've requested photos because I would like to paint their specific dog which they've either shown me photos or which they have had with them when I meet them usually at the market. (Wow, that's a really convoluted sentence!) Anyway, I usually don't get to meet the dog (or other animal) personally and have to rely on descriptions of personality, etc., and photos from customers. And sometimes I actually do take the photos of the animal myself if I get to meet him/her in person. But I've found that my customers often can get better photos of their pet than I can because they can get photos of them in their everyday lives or playing with a favorite toy, etc., something I can't usually get.
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