Black Spaniel

[Enug]

I think he had been for a swim. Airbrush.

100480

[D Akey]

You really hit the sweet spot on making them look cuddly and lovable. Sweet dog.

What do you think about the angle of the head? because the nose is coming at us at a slight 3/4 angle to the left, the top of the head seems to be skewed a bit to the left. Part of that illusion is coming from the more straight on look at the dog's left ear which might be better turning away in keeping with the angle the snoot indicates being the pose angle.

Minor note. Overall it's great. So are you doing pet portraits now? If so they have to be loving you.

:cool::cool::cool::cool::cool:

[Enug]

Now that you draw my attention to it DA, I can see what you mean - the muzzle looks a bit twisted - it didn't appear so obvious before resizing to this much smaller image. I'll try out the liquify tool to 'push' the nose over a bit. I haven't used that before. Or.....I could repaint that bit. Your suggestions are always appreciated.

As to your question about pet portraits - yes, I do seem to have moved in that direction. I don't seem to be 'drawn'(:rolleyes:) to other subjects as much, except for flowers. So it looks like flora and fauna for me. So far only the one commission outside family members and for that my asking fee was a box of chocolates! :):)

[Enug]

Does this look any better - or have I still missed it?

100487

[D Akey]

It's so small and low rez I can't really make a comparison. Sometimes a way to check is to have two versions of the .jpeg or .png at the same size and toggle them on and off in a viewing program. When you toggle, you can immediately see any variation and it's easier to know.

The issue is that the nose is going to the left and yet the head looks to be painted straight on at us.

So you have a choice:
Either you can turn the head to match the snoot or you can straighten the snoot to match the head.

Possible ways:

1) trim back the dog's left ear and over the left eye forehead so that it looks more at a 3/4 angle as it would if turned slightly hiding that side (the right side looks fine.)

or

2) leave all that and copy and paste the nose to the right where the head looks straight ahead and repaint the bridge of the nose to line up.

But I would only know what little bits would need adjusting once I would have it in the works.

The source photo sounds like it was misleading, so you as the artist have to fix what was a bit of an odd shape. It's one of the cases where knowing anatomy and how to do a quick lay-in sketch saves the day.

I mean you're really great with the finishes. It's the 30 seconds to 5 minutes building a structure before painting that often pros would do to avoid unpleasant surprises at the end. With digital so much is easily fixable that it may no longer be a step to do, but I'm old school.

Now I want my cut of the chocolates. . . none for the doggie, please.

:cool::cool::cool::cool::cool:

[Enug]

Thanks for the tips DA but as obviously I can't see it as you do I'll leave it as is. It's only for me anyway. However, your suggestions are noted and hopefully next time I will do better. ;););)