This unique pet portrait features a cute Havapoo named Hazel. Her portrait was painted with acrylics on a 12×12 inch canvas, and finished on November 13, 2025. This is an example of my ‘natural color’ style with a solid color background. I offer two main styles, depending on what the customer prefers. Some prefer the bold vibrant rainbow colors of my ‘colorful realism’ or ‘psychedelic’ styles, while others prefer the more realistic natural colors for their pet. It is entirely up to the person asking for the commission to request their color scheme, and I am very flexible and offer a wide variety of options so that everyone is happy. Although my signature style is ‘colorful realism’, I do enjoy painting in natural colors as well!
Multiple reference photos of Hazel was provided by the owner, and each one filled in some gaps that were missing from another. There was not one single photo that I used for the reference. The main reference was a composite of two separate photos, since I liked the pose from one but the ears were half missing, so I used another photo to help with the ears, and a third for the body position. Other photos were used to make sure the colors and markings were accurate, as well as the body shape and the boundary between the white on the chest and the brown areas on the body. This is exactly why I request multiple photos for one pet. One photo is never adequate, since it never portrays the pet accurately, and there are always details that are missing. Also the pet’s color can appear different in different lighting situations (outdoor vs indoor, fluorescent or LED vs incandescent), and sometimes small details like fur texture can be washed out, especially on white animals or animals that have a lot of white in their fur. This was the case with Hazel, where the white areas of her face and body lacked detail due to the lighting, but I was able to see the actual details in another photo that was taken with a different light source.
The background color for Hazel’s portrait was something that I mixed myself from multiple colors. I call it ‘bright army green’ and it is a mixture of Light Olive Green, Hooker’s Green, Green-Gray, Raw Umber, and Aqua Green. The green-gray and raw umber hlp to desaturate the green a bit, making it softer and less harsh than a fully saturated bright green. This is helpful when I want to use colors, but don’t want them at their full chroma (brightness), since it will overpower the subject.
The colors of the brown areas of her fur were painted with multiple layers of raw sienna, mixed with unbleached titanium, ivory black, and raw umber. Ivory black is an incredible transparent brownish-black which is amazing for darkening natural colors as well as glazing for shadowed areas. Since it is very transparent, it can be layered a lot while maintaining the color tone of the underlayers, and also for adding subtle fur detail shadows. It is a versatile tinter and darkener for many colors, and I have found it to be a very useful addition to my palette.
The white areas were painted first with a base layer of neutral gray mixed with titanium white and a bit of unbleached titanium and parchment, creating a neutral undertone to the fur, where titanium white and parchment were layered on top to add fur details. It is much easier to work dark to light like this, rather than trying to paint in shadows into white fur, which just ends up looking streaky and flat. A similar technique was used in the brown areas, where the darker colors were added first, then lighter and lighter colors layered on top to make the fur look more realistic.
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I hope you enjoy this wonderful painting of Hazel the havapoo! If you want one of your own pet, please click on the Pet Portraits tab above. I have been working as a full time pet portrait artist since 2017 and have painted over 150 portraits of all kinds of pets, including dogs, cats, sheep, lizards, birds, rodents, and many more. I create my portraits with high quality archival acrylic paints on stretched canvas, ranging in size from 5×7 inches to 48×60 inches for rectangular shapes, and from 6×6 inches to 30×30 inches for square shapes. I work from your photos, and communicate the entire process via regular email updates. I typically book out 2-3 months in advance, so if you want a portrait for a gift, please contact me in advance to reserve your spot on my calendar.
