These two delightful dogs were portraits for the same owner, so I am including them both in this article. On the left in the picture above is Gravy the Blue Heeler, and on the right is Biscuit the Corgi. Gravy’s painting was made first, with acrylic paints on an 8×10 inch stretched canvas and completed in September 2024. Biscuit’s was second, and was also painted with acrylics on an 8×10 canvas, and was completed in early October, 2024. They both have the same background colors because the owner wanted them to fit together like a puzzle so they could both be printed together on a coffee mug without any seams.

This is a closeup view of Gravy the Blue Heeler. His portrait features an entire rainbow of colors. The background is a gradient of magenta, purple, violet, blue, teal, and green, with some texturing added in between colors to make it look painterly. Gravy is a mostly white dog, with some speckling, a half-mask over his right eye, and two black ears. I kept the body white and added layers of blues, purples and magenta for the spots, and some yellow and orange for the pale tan markings on the chest. The rest of the dog,s portrait was done in the same manner, with blues and purples for the black areas, and orange and yellow for the tan areas, with some magenta and hot pink added in for some variation. The reference photo chosen was of Gravy looking up at the owner, probably because of a treat, and they liked how it looked like he was smiling, so they wanted me to use it as the reference for the painting. His eyes were left the natural brown color.

Now for the Biscuit in the biscuit and gravy duo. He is a blue merle Cardigan Welsh corgi, and in the reference photo they chose, he was looking a bit off to the side. I used the same gradient background for his portrait, and put the paintings side by side on my drawing table to make sure the color bars lined up on each portrait. For Biscuit’s blue merle areas, I used a base of light blue, with dioxazine purple layered on top. For the tan areas, I used mostly orange and light yellow, with some magenta and hot pink for shading and details. The white areas were left the canvas color, with some light blue and yellow layered for shading and fur details. His eyes are a vibrant blue, so they were painted the natural color to match how they looked in the photo.

Above is the progress picture of the paintings. Gravy’s painting is on the right, and Biscuit’s is on the left, so I can make sure the backgrounds align with each other.