Kasey and Ferris

This is my latest portrait - Ferris.  He's one of the many, many dogs that Foothill Dog Rescue has taken in and found a forever home for.  He's a terrier mix with the brightest eyes and sweetest expression.

This portrait is acrylics on Strathmore Mixed Media paper.  The most challenging part was the fur. 

On my other portraits in this series, I've been able to paint the fur by blocking in colors for the under-painting then painting the fur with a small liner brush, slowly building up color and texture.

This one was a different type of challenge, however.  The light colors required me to use a lot of opaque colors rather than the transparent ones I've used in the other paintings.  During much of the process I didn't have much hope, but in the end he worked out fine.  I'm especially happy with the selection of the background color with Ferris' champagne fur.

This is the final version of Kasey's portrait.  When I posted it before it was nearly done.  But here I've worked more on the ears, adding shadows and integrating them better with the head.

I hope the cards that I'll have made from the portraits can raise some money for Foothill Dog Rescue.