A colorful pet portrait of a mixed breed dog named Linus. Acrylic painting on a 6×8 inch canvas, completed November 18, 2025. Linus’ portrait was painted in my ‘colorful realism’ style, with a simple gradient background. The owner’s favorite color is teal and turquoise, and her walls are painted in those colors. But I thought that this pink and purple gradient would look more striking, and stand out against the teal colors of the interior walls. I had already mixed this color palette for Reinhardt’s painting, and thought it would be a good idea to use for this painting as well. The warm pinks and purples give a kind of glowing effect to the background, and make the dog pop from the canvas.

Linus is a mixed breed dog of unknown origin. He appears to be mixed with hound and possibly rottweiler. He is mostly black, with a white blaze on his chest, and tan ‘points’ above his eyes, on his cheeks, and on his muzzle, and the lower half of his legs, similar to a rottie. The tan of his muzzle had faded to white, and this was in the reference photo I used primarily for the painting. I used a foundation layer of a mixture of dioxazine purple and cerulean blue, and added layers of light blue, teal green, fluorescent pink, and light yellow. The shadows were painted with layers of dioxazine purple until they appeared almost black. The points were painted with fluorescent pink and light yellow. His eyes were painted their natural dark brown color, with black around the border.

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If you love Linus’ portrait and want a painting of your own pet, please peruse my portfolio and contact me. All the information about my pet portrait process, including sizes and pricing, can be found on the Pet Portraits tab above. I offer two styles: colorful realism (like this one) and natural colors, with your choice of background style and color. You can choose a solid color, a gradient, a ‘confetti’ style (with abstract brushstrokes) or a natural setting. Examples of all of them can be seen in my portfolio.

I have been painting pet portraits professionally since 2017, and have created over 150 portraits for customers all across the United States. I paint with acrylics on stretched canvas, and you can choose the size that is right for your budget and wall space, from very small to very large. I book out 2-3 months in advance, so please be sure to get on my schedule early if this is a gift for someone.