Bandit

"This beautiful border collie was a delight to paint. I worked from photos provided by Erin, who commissioned me to paint this for her sister, Bandy's owner. I ended up combining two of the photos in order to get the best pose and best reference information.

Black fur and white fur are both challenging to paint... their dimension, texture and realism comes from capturing the highlights and shadows. There are more 'colors' in the blacks and whites than you might guess, and it's my job as the artist to extract them. So Bandy's fur was a good test for my painting abilities! Bandy's brown eyes are particularly captivating and really make the painting come alive.

I was delighted to learn that Bandy's mom loved the portrait so much that it brought tears of happiness."

Read more about the creation of this painting in my blog post.