Sketch for a Yorkshire Terrier Portrait

Mel is a Yorkie, and just five pounds of sweetness, energy and personality. When I saw her photos, I knew she’d fit just right into a small 5″ x 7″ painting.

When I first started painting pets–I painted extremely small miniatures–just 2 x 3.5 inches, about the size of a business card. However after a while, I began to get frustrated with what I could accomplish at that scale and started to work larger. I no longer do the teeny tiny paintings–a 5″ x 7″ is about as small as I like to paint because it allows me to capture the level of detail I prefer. That small a painting isn’t right for every dog, especially for larger breeds, but for a little sweetheart like Mel, it seemed to fit.

I was lucky enough to learn quite a bit about Mel from her owner, and to get a good sense of her personality. I even saw a video of her, and the best part was learning that she’s bilingual, and understands both English and Portuguese!