This is a colorful pet portrait of a mixed breed dog named Zuri. It was painted with acrylics on an 18×24 inch canvas, and completed on February 19, 2025. She was painted in my signature ‘colorful realism’ style, with a gradient background. Blue and purple are the dominant colors, but every color on the rainbow spectrum is represented somewhere in the painting.

The background is a simple gradient of purple, violet, light blue, teal and green. This complements the colors in the dogs fur while also not being distracting. The blanket she is laying on was done with a base of light blue, with all the colors of the rainbow added on top in various side brush strokes. Again, this complements the rainbow colors in her fur without being distracting or busy. I chose to do a rainbow for the blanket rather than a solid color because I thought it would look more visually interesting.

Zuri is a black and white dog. This portrait was painted entirely from one single reference photo – a picture of her laying on a blanket. The black areas of her fur are represented by a base of medium blue, with light and dark purple, magenta, fluorescent pink, teal, green, and even yellow layered on top to represent highlights and shadows and fur texture. The white areas were left mostly white, with light blue and purple used as the shading colors. Her eyes are an icy crystal blue color, and were portrayed accurately to the reference photo. The insides of her ears are pink, and were painted with bright pink and magenta colors with a touch of yellow for the highlights. Her black nose is painted in various shades of blue and green.

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If you like Zuri’s portrait and want a similar painting of your own pet, please contact me. There is more information about my pet portrait process here. I paint the portraits by hand with high quality acrylic paints on stretched canvas, and you can choose the size and shape. I offer rectangular and square canvases in a variety of sizes to fit any budget and wall space needs. I have been a pet portrait artist since 2017 and have experience painting a wide variety of breeds and species, including cats, dogs, farm animals, pocket pets, birds, and reptiles. I offer colorful and natural styles, and you can see all the different styles I have painted in my Portfolio. I create my paintings using photos you provide as the reference, and I am capable of making a composite reference from multiple photos to capture your pet’s spirit and personality accurately.