Dachshund Portrait, Finished

I tried to capture the lovely white "frosting" on Bear's face, which is visible in the original photo. Here's a 2 minute video of Bear's painting from start to finish:
At about 0:52 you can see a closeup of Bear's eyes being painted. I'll be posting progress shots with detailed descriptions soon. Congratulations Bear!
Finished Dog Painting with Video

I filmed video of the process and sped it up into a very quick speed painting video. You can see the whole painting from start to finish:
The Dogster Dog Blog recently ran a contest celebrating older dogs. I'll be donating a 16"x20" custom portrait to the winner. Today on the Dog Blog, you can see a selection of the beautiful stories and photos that people have submitted. More photos and stories will follow this week. A winner will be drawn at random next Monday, and I'm looking forward to painting their portrait.
Forest Painting Video
You'll see I had a bit of trouble getting the lighting consistent throughout the video but I'm working on that. When I started the painting, I had made sort of a crude mockup of what I wanted in Photoshop, but the painting evolves thoughout the process into something different. The center area darkens and the tent becomes smaller and more central.
Finished Pug Portrait with Video
I've been working on making my videos faster and shorter, and I trimmed this one down to a lean 1:54 to fit the music. What do you think of the shorter lengths of my videos? If you've got an opinion, leave a comment at the bottom of the post. Here's the video:
Next, I painted in the basic colors and shapes of the background, and made some slight adjustments to her body.

Finally, I added the contours in her bed to make her look like she's sinking in a little bit. To make the contours I added alternating lines of light and dark blues and whites from my sidemix. I wrote her name on her tag with my tiny detail brush. Here's the finished portrait:

There's a summary of the whole process in the new portrait demo section on my main site.
Island Lake Sunset Video
Sheltie Portrait Video

Binx's mom suggested a burgundy background, and I think it looks good with his coat colors.
I filmed video of the painting from start to finish, and sped it up into a 3-minute "speed painting" with music. If you want to see the video in higher resolution, I recommend clicking on the YouTube icon on the bottom right of the window, which will take you to the video in YouTube. Then click on the HQ option on the bottom right. Here's the video:
Foster's Finished Portrait

I filmed the painting from start to finish and sped it up into a 3-minute speed painting. I painted the portrait over several sessions, but made sure to wear the same shirt and use the same lighting so it would look seamless. I recommend watching the video in High Quality (HQ) by clicking on the YouTube icon in the bottom corner and selecting HQ on the bottom right of the controls.
Jolanda's Painting Video
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Yellowstone Speed Painting
I've been working on my series of paintings featuring parks in Canada and the US. This painting is based on Yellowstone National Park, from a trip we took to a cabin in Montana with our friends last May.
As usual, I recommend you click on the YouTube icon in the bottom right of the window to watch the video in YouTube, then click the HQ icon to see it in high quality.
Chesterman Beach Video
This is my speed painting video of my Chesterman Beach painting from Vancouver Island, British Columbia. My sister Gillian took the photo while she was camping there with her husband. She and I grew up in a rural area north of here on Vancouver Island. It's a beautiful place.
Montana Painting Video
This is a landscape I painted after last month's trip to Montana. I took a photograph at my friend's cabin and then painted this when I got back to California. The forest cover in this valley is growing back after a large fire swept the area 13 years ago. Now that most of the mature pines are gone, the forest canopy is open, and much more of the mountain scenery is visible. The area is very green and filled with birds and wildflowers.
I taped my work and sped it up into a 5 minute speed painting:
I'm getting a little better at my video technique, though I need to learn how to paint without standing in the way of the camera. You can see the lights flickering as I move around the canvas, blocking the different spotlights. I'm just happy I haven't backed up and crashed into the tripod yet.
You can see much more detail in the video if you click through to YouTube and select the HQ icon on the bottom right to view in high quality.
Mollie's Painting Video
I've finished my portrait of Mollie, the winner of the Dog Blog's photo contest on Dogster. For the first time, I filmed the painting from start to finish. I sped up the footage into an 8 minute "speed painting" and posted it on YouTube. Check it out:
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