Giving

I like to dabble in animal portraits and have drawn several in charcoal and pastels but never done a painting.  My sister has been bugging me for the past several years to create a portrait of her latest addition, Wesley.

He is an adorable, ball obsessed, Momma lovin' boy.

 I had put the task off because I didn't have a good photo of him so while they were visiting during Christmas I did my best to get a good photo of him.

 He was feeling dejected because Mom was dealing with Christmas and wasn't sitting with him.

I decided that this photo captured him beautifully.  I started taking painting classes in January and decided to try painting his portrait for my sister's birthday at the end of April.

I started with a black and white study that was okay for a start but I knew I had a long way to go.

I laid in the darks and lights in the new attempt.  His paw was awkward and needed fixing and his eyes weren't quite right.

With a bit of work over the next month I was finally satisfied with the painting.

I was excited to give it to my sister over the weekend while she was visiting.  She was very happy with it and I took an adorable photo of her with the painting only to discover later that I didn't have the card in the camera, so no final photo.  Oh well.  Now it's time to figure out what I will paint next!