Pet Portraits!

OK, do PJ got his portrait and now apparently Buckley (our dog) wants a turn! Actually painting PJ's portrait made me think if how easy this sort of thing is for me. I fully admit that I use a projector to get started, but even that takes some skill. I can only get do much done that way (it is good for basic values, but NO detail). I always work best from a photo so I don't mind that half or more of my time is spent zooming in on a digital image while painting from observation. Anyway, PJ's portrait went FAST, like less than 2 hours, so I got to thinking about just doing pet portraits.... But with the same silly outfits. Flash forward about a month and I needed a donation for our church auction. I found a gold frame at a thrift store, covered the ugly image with gesso, and made a flyer explaining what I was offering. I got to thinking about it some more and I really wanted an example of my work painting a pet in costume, so today I put a coat of gesso on a different gold frame and worked for about an hour. You can see the progress below.