Brushes Used : Jackson's Akoya Synthetic Flat no. 10, 8, 4, 2

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Paints Used : Liquitex Soft Body Acrylics — Titanium White, Muted Purple, Cobalt Blue, Cadmium Red, Cadmium Yellow Light.

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1. I transfer a sketch of Roxy (name of the dog) onto the canvas. I make sure the drawing is 100% accurate before transferring it, as I don’t want to fix it at a later stage. I’ve also stained the canvas with a bright pink colour to let the warmth show through.

2. Roxy is mostly black and dark grey. When animals have darker coats like hers, I usually use muted purples and blues instead of black (which I rarely use).

3. I begin by blocking in the face using muted purple mixed with a little cobalt blue and a touch of cadmium red. The areas around her nose are a bit lighter, so I’ll add a little titanium white to the mixture for those parts.

4. I block in the nose using cobalt blue and a little cadmium red. I avoid using the muted purple here because I don’t want the same colour everywhere — I want to create interest. This results in a more saturated purple tone on the nose.

5. Next, I block in the eye colour. I start with a dark brown, mixing cadmium yellow light, cadmium red, and cobalt blue. Then I create a grey-green using cadmium yellow light, cobalt blue, some of the muted purple mixture from the face, and titanium white.
   I add the whites of the eyes and a few highlights using titanium white mixed with a touch of cobalt blue and cadmium red. I find these highlights really bring the subject to life. Keeping the face relatively muted and saving the brightest highlights for the eyes and nose makes a huge difference.

6. I create the form of the face, brow, and Roxy’s expression using the same face mixture but with less white, making it a darker value. This part is especially important, so I take my time to get an accurate representation of Roxy’s expression.
   It often helps to convert the reference photo to black and white to better see the tonal values.

7. I finish off the painting by applying lighter and darker marks on Roxy’s coat. I'm strategic with how I use my brush and the direction of the brushstrokes. Each mark adds to the painting and helps make the portrait resemble the subject more closely. I wrap it up by applying the darkest darks (around the eyes, eyeballs, and nose) and the lightest lights (on the eyes, nose, and white fur).

8. Roxy was a joy to paint, and I’m happy enough with the outcome. With paintings like these, I could always keep going—adding more marks—but there’s always a risk of overworking it, so I stop when I don’t see anything major left to add.

9. Thank you for following along. If you have any questions, just shoot me an email.