My first pet portrait commission of 2023 was three portraits for one customer, of their pets Ace, Aspen, and Cooper. Ace is the buff tabby cat, Aspen is the brown and white tabby cat, and Cooper is the brown mixed breed dog. All three portraits were painted with acrylics each on an 8×10 stretched canvas, and all were completed in January. They all feature the “natural colors” style on a solid color background. The background on Ace’s portrait is blue, on Aspen’s is lavender, and Cooper’s is teal. All three artworks are available as art prints and more in my Online Art Prints store (RebeccaWangArt.com)

I painted Cooper’s portrait first. He is a brown and white pitbull terrier mixed breed dog, with floppy ears and an eager expression. The background is a slight gradient, with a lighter teal at the top blending to a darker teal at the bottom. I chose this rather than a solid color because I felt it gave more depth to the portrait and made it more visually interesting. I used various shades of brown and mixed with a little bit of light yellow and orange for the main portion of the fur, and used light yellow, blue-gray, and burnt sienna for the highlights and shadows. There are little pops of blue here and there to give more depth to the portrait.

The next portrait I completed for this customer was Ace, a buff orange tabby cat with a white bib and muzzle. I had to use two reference photos for his portrait, since there were details missing in both. He is much older in his photos, and that is reflected in his facial features, especially his eyes. His background is a slight gradient of medium blue at the top to darker blue at the bottom. I felt the blue contrasted nicely with the orange tons in his fur.

The last portrait I painted was Aspen, the brown and white tabby cat. The owners did not have many good photos of her, and the few that they did have were very out of focus and dark, so I had to make up for the loss of detail by using other references of cats with similar markings and facial features. They were happy with the results, even though the reference was less than ideal. I chose a lavender and purple colored background for her so she could have a unique color that also complemented the other two. Her portrait is a little more impressionistic than the other two due to the lack of details in the reference photo.

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If you like my art style and you want a custom portrait of your own pet, please visit my Commission Information Page. I paint using acrylic paints on stretched canvas. The canvases are varnished and have a hanging wire installed on the back, so they are ready to hang. I ship worldwide. I will paint any animal species, including cats, dogs, horses, farm animals, fish, reptiles, birds, and even invertebrates. Please visit my Portfolio to see all of my works.