I wanted to share a painting I made recently featuring my friend’s Shih Tzu dog named Nikki rolling around in some autumn foliage.

I used watercolor and gouache on 140lbs watercolor paper.

I haven’t drawn many dogs compared to cats, so I ended up making 4 sketches before I had one I was happy with. I always love drawing paws, paw fingers, toe beans.

After I finished the sketch, I did a light wash of orange watercolor over the entire painting and started using different colors to work on the foliage

I continued to use more orange washes to develop shadows and light and work on the foliage some more. I started to develop the face and tried to paint chunks of fur.

I used blue gouache for the sky color, some little lights on the fur, and white gouache for eye shines

I do want to paint more Nikki however right now I am trying to get a larger repository of animals and dog breeds in my portfolio. Next I am going to paint a whimsical toy poodle having a tea party~⋆☕︎˖