Oscar

I was recently commissioned to do a memorial portrait of a schnauzer that had died unexpectedly. The commissioners were friends of the owners, and I thought it was a lovely thing to do. 

Here is the final portrait:

 

Initially I was asked to surround Oscar with flowers, but before I'd got started on rough sketches I was told that he spent a lot of time at the beach, and that that would be a better setting. I did three rough concepts to start with, two of which included coastal vegetation, and the one they chose, with him looking out to sea. I've worked with this client before, and she knows that my hideous rough sketches will eventually become better, so the initial concepts were very rough.

Here's how the piece progressed. Rough sketch (Photoshop) > More refined sketch & colour study (photoshop) > inking (Copic Multiliners) > Painting (Watercolour & Coloured Pencil)

Winsor & Newton Watercolours, Prismacolour Pencils, Reeves Gouache, Copic Opaque White and Copic Multiliners on Moleskine watercolour paper.