A colorful pet portrait of a white and brown tabby Maine coon named Bitters. Acrylic painting on 11×14 inch canvas, completed on April 8, 2025. Bitter’s portrait was created in my ‘colorful realism’ style, which features bright rainbow colors following the pet’s own coat color and markings as a guide. The background is a simple gradient of purple, blue, teal, and green, which complements the cool colors in the white areas, and contrasts the warm colors (red, orange, yellow) in the markings of his face. You can see a bigger view of this painting below.

Bitters is mostly white, with the brown tabby markings confined to the left and right side of his face, split by a white blaze on his forehead. The white areas were painted with various shades of blue and purple for the shaded areas in the fur, with just a touch of very light yellow to offset the cool colors and give the white areas a bit of warmth. The brown tabby areas were painted with a foundation layer of magenta, with dioxazine purple for the stripes. Layers of light blue, pale yellow, fluorescent pink, and even a tiny bit of teal green were added to give the illusion of depth and detail in the fur. His eyes were painted their natural color of pale amber. I always paint the animal’s eyes their natural color, even if I am painting in a colorful style. The inside of the ears are pink and magenta, with white hairs layering over the top from the inside edge. He has black tufts on the tips of his ears, which were painted with dioxazine purple.

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I have been creating pet portraits professionally since 2017. I have two styles: colorful and natural, and while many of my customers love the colorful style, some prefer the natural colors, which is why I offer both. Please visit my Portfolio to see all of my pet portrait paintings. I have completed over 150 portraits in the past 8 years, including dogs, cats, farm animals, birds, reptiles, and rodents.

For more information on the sizes and availability of my portraits, please visit my Pet Portraits commission page.