Bridging the Distance With Diesel

Diesel is a handsome German Shepherd who’s an active boy and loves to fetch balls. Sadly his “dad” was going to be separated from him for quite a while, so his “mom” decided a to have a portrait of Diesel created as a gift to take with him.

I started by creating a pencil sketch based on his photos. Then I scanned it into my computer and applied color. This is my typical sketch process and I find it gives my clients a very good idea of what the final painting will look like. It also allows me to easily experiment with different backgrounds and colors. In this case while I had a good photo of Diesel himself, he was sitting indoors with a tv behind his head. He looked like the outdoor type to me, so I composed him with a soft focus shot of some trees to make the sketch. I also added a name tag which was later changed to another one.