Zarley's creation - Here is the reference photo for my next portrait - Zarley.

Ashley contacted me from Canada wanting a portrait of Zarley her Portugese Waterdog . Zarley had a stroke recently and had to be put down.

' Zarley was loyal and devoted to a fault - he would have gone to the ends of the earth for me.'  Ashley

He sounds like he was a great dog . I'm looking forward to doing him justice in a portrait.I will show his eyes in the portrait.

I love the writing on his bed . It says  ' If my dreams come true it will rain bones!' We have cropped the original photo so  Zarley will be larger in the portrait.

His portrait will be a 40 x 50cms unframed Oil on canvas that can be rolled and sent in a tube to keep shipping economical . Ashley will frame him later.

Here's a few photos to show progress so far..

I was getting a bit worried at this 'ugly' stage..lol's. I decided to start on his face first .I usually do the whole portrait at once but i wanted to get past the ugly stage quicker!

 

Phew.. I can see it's going to come ok..There is a long way to go yet! 
His face isn't finished yet but I'll go and do the rest of the portrait and come back to it later.

Here's where I'm up to about 55% finished. I've covered the whole canvas except for the white area with the type.I now have to finish that and refine Zarley's face and body and the bed.

I had several background colour changes in the process of creating Zarley. I sometimes felt I was chasing my tail and would never be happy!
Here I've changed it to green

Because his portrait is on a piece of unstretched canvas and had some ripples in it ( which will come out when it's framed)  I had a problem with sheen showing on the background. I had to take the photo at an angle to reduce this.

A bit further along  refining Zarley.

I decided I didn't like the green so went back to the purple / mauve. Now I have to integrate the rest of the portrait with the background colouring.

 The finished portrait. 
In memory of Zarley
c 40 x 50cms unframed Oil 
" It looks AMAZING!!!!! I love the painting!
 Ashley