Starting Off Sassy’s Portrait

This is the first rough painting for a portrait of a Schnauzer named Sassy. Her “human” gave me a wonderful description of her. I always start off a commission by asking for a sense of what a dog or cat is like, because I believe the more I know about a pet, the better it will be reflected in the finished art.

This was one of the fun things I learned about Sassy. “When I got her as a puppy her ears were so big for her body but she eventually grew into them. I would say her ears were her biggest and best feature and they could almost speak for her. They moved and changed based on her attitude and what she wanted ‘to say’.”

It was clear any portrait of Sassy had to have her ears showing in a big way. So I chose to position her full face on so we would be looking right into them.