Pug Portrait Painting in Oil, "Ferris," Painting a Pup a Day

"Ferris," 8"x10" oil on stretched canvas (nfs)

This is a piece I struggled with in the beginning, but absolutely fell in love with by the end! I think all the wrinkles seemed a bit intimidating, but once I plunged in and started to look at everything in terms of shape and color it all seemed to come together. I found that Pugs also have quite an interesting color to their fur, so I played around a bit with various shades of umber mixed with white and a touch of cream. I'm really pleased with how this piece turned out and especially because it is for a wonderful friend of mine, Tammi Kelts. I will need to replace the photo tomorrow as I ran out of sunlight today.

Painting a Pup a Day:Daily Dog Paintings by artist Lara Harris...Pug & Golden Retriever Portraits

The past two days have been a bit crazy here in the Harris household as I have been in need of some rather extensive (and painful) dental work and then discovered today that my website seems to have all but disappeared?...thankfully it looks like it will be back online soon(fingers & toes crossed). Anyway, it was refreshing just to get painting today, a natural stress reliever. This week I will be working on three commissions, two of which you see here, the third I have not yet started but will this evening. I will be painting an adorable Pug named Ferris, a Golden Retriever Puppy named Meg, and another Westie. These are the very beginning stages of the Pug & Golden. I generally start out by doing a rough sketch in paint followed by blocking in color as you see here. I always worry that the owners will have a heart attack thinking this will be how the finished piece will look, but rest assured there will be much more detail than seen here so stay tuned! If you would like to have your pet's portrait done as part of my Painting a Pup a Day project, feel free to drop me an email at Loveall4Him@aol.com