This is Luna. Her portrait was painted with acrylics on a 9×12 sheet of cold press watercolor paper. June 2, 2025. I painted her portrait in a natural realism style with a muted lavender colored background. This is one of two main styles that I offer for my pet portraits. While many people are drawn to the bright, rainbow colors of my ‘colorful realism’ and psychedelic styles, others prefer natural colors. Most portrait artists specialize in one specific style, and while I am well known for my colorful style, I do love painting in natural colors periodically, and many customers have asked me to do so, which I am fine with. It is my pleasure to offer the customers a choice when it comes to their portraits, and also be flexible with my own skills and styles.

Luna is a terrier mixed breed dog. She is gray and white, and has a long wiry coat. I chose muted lavender for the background because I wanted some color, and to be contrasted with her fur, but not too bright and bold. The grayish-purple works well as a background without being too distracting or taking away from the subject. Her eyes are a very dark brown color, and she has a bit of pink below her right eye (left in the painting) from her skin showing through the thinner hair there. The majority of her fur is white, and she has a gray area on the left side of her head, both of her ears are gray, and she has a gray saddle marking on her back.

For this painting, I did an underpainting base layer of neutral gray, even under the background color. This helped to give the entire painting a more muted, natural feel, and also allowed me to add my lights and darks on top without fighting the white of the paper. The gray areas were given a base layer of a darker gray mixed with a touch of raw umber, and layers of parchment added on top to simulate fur texture and highlights, and ivory black for the shadows. The white areas were painted with layers of parchment and titanium white on top of the neutral gray, and darker areas shaded with a touch of ivory mixed with the neutral gray. I had to repeat the process many times with many layers of paint before the fur texture looked how I wanted it to. Working in thin layers with semi-transparent paint, from darker to lighter, gives the best depth in the fur texture and makes it look more realistic.

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If you want a portrait of your own pet, please visit my Pet Portraits page to see the entire list of prices and sizes and my availability. I have been painting pet portraits professionally since 2017, and have over 150 portraits in my Portfolio, including cats, dogs, farm animals, reptiles, birds, and pocket pets. I can paint in colorful or natural styles, with your choice of background color. I look forward to painting your furry, feathery, or scaly companion!