I just finished the prize for my Cutest Photo Ever! Contest, a very sweet portrait of Daddy and his Boy, for Robynn of Hamilton, Ontario. Although it is a smaller portrait, measuring 9″x12″, it packs quite  bit of detail in…there’s a dad, there’s a baby, and then the portrait of the bunny toy. It’s pretty freaking adorable, and was voted as such in my contest back in June!!

I worked on this piece in tandem with a commission – a portrait of two standard poodles. This second piece will be a wedding gift for (yet again!) the couple who has everything (except a painting of their pets!)

Working on the two pieces together was a bit of an experiment. I wanted to see if my productivity would increase if I worked on a couple of things at once, allowing myself time to digest each piece between painting sessions. I can’t say it sped me up at all. I diligently document my time for each painting and drawing, and these both came in pretty-much on par with the rest. However, it was a lot more fun to switch back and forth between a couple of paintings over a few weeks, rather than chaining myself to one canvas the whole time.

This is what they looked like in the beginning:

I continued to go back and forth between the two. The dogs got here:

Then Logan (the baby) here:

At that point, due to time constraints, I had to put all of my energy into the poodles for a few days, to get them done in time for the wedding! I worked at length on the grass lawn, and then built up their curly fur until it looked soft enough to pet. (I may flatter myself here, right?) Here they are, close to the end of the process, and then completed:

Now, back to Logan and Adrian, those adorable guys! Believe it or not, Adrian’s white shirt was rather challenging, that and the smooth, smooth skin of the baby. (If you have ever wondered, babies are actually really hard! They don’t have the wrinkles and imperfections in their skin that grown-ups do, meaning everything must be very blended and perfectly shaded…quite tough!) I left the bunny until the end. I like to get the harder stuff out of the way first, and finish up with something easier. This is a good approach to life, too, I think.  So, I smoothed little Logan out quite a bit, and worked on Dad’s mug. And voila! An homage to cuteness:

To see my other pet paintings and drawings, please go here. Coming up, I have two lab portrait drawings for the runner-up of my Cutest Photo Ever Contest, Arelene in Enfield, NS, a wiley cat for Liz in Peterborough, ON, and a dog with crazy eyes for Mandy in Dundas.

Hope that everyone is having an amazing summer so far! I’m doing a lot of lake swimming…and painting!

xo melody