I finished this surprise painting for my mother-in-law Vicki this week. She’s always been very supportive of my painting and is my only paying customer to date. With that in mind, I wanted to give her something really special for Christmas. Her favorite dog Dopey is getting older and blinder by the minute so I thought she’d really treasure a painting of him.

When I was looking for a younger picture of him I discovered that she didn’t have any really good pictures of him. I think that will make this a little more special. I ended up taking a picture of him a couple of weeks ago, merging it with another photo taken by my father-in-law and using my imagination a little to erase the cataracts from his eyes.

While painting, I couldn’t shake the idea that Dopey resembled General Grievous. Putting the two right next to each other, Dopey is more of an overweight General G.. My husband always has lots of comments on my paintings. He usually gives me a mix of humorous and super nitpicky feedback. For this one, he commented that the eyes were dead and soul-less, and the ears and lips aren’t right. He was right about the ears, the lips just needed some more definition, and apparently eyes can’t contain souls until they also have a little detail. We have fun. 😉

It might just be me, but I find pet portraits really fun, quick and easy compared to landscapes. Is it just that after painting so many landscapes in a row, I’ve actually grown as an artist? It could have been the opposite. I could have started with dogs and after painting so many, landscapes would be easy. Except landscapes still aren’t very easy, even after doing so many. Does anyone else find that certain subjects are easier?