Improvisation, Perspiration, Desperation...

What do you do when someone wants a portrait painted of their dear departed dog but the best photo they have looks like this?  Not only is the photo dark, it is also really small...and you are also asked to make the labrador's eye the right colour and give the spaniel the curly ears he has now rather than his smooth puppy ears, as well as change the background to something plain.

Well, initially you take a deep breath, gulp slightly and smile, saying it will be fine, of course I can.  Then you have a couple of days of serious self-doubt and find anything else to do rather than tackle this knotty problem!

But thanks to the internet and a wealth of photographs of chocolate labradors, as well as a couple of mediocre extra photos of the spaniel pup, you bite the bullet and give it a go and find to your surprise that it all goes rather well.

Considering the problems I had to overcome, I'm quite happy with how this has turned out - hopefully the owners will be too.  Ted & Charlie, it's been a lot of hard work but worth it.

Next up, a portrait of a black spaniel with some superb reference photos to work from!

N.B. Yesterday the lady who commissioned this came to pick it up - as soon as she saw it she burst into tears!  She was still crying an hour later apparently - I think I got it right!