Paint a Pet! Happy Holidays from The Painting Life

Boston Terrier
Watercolor on Arches Paper
5 x 7 in/12.7 x 17.7 cm
Copyright Byrne Smith 2016

Well, I've been busy this past month. I decided I would concentrate on learning how to paint portraits. I must tell you that there are few things in painting (or in life) more challenging than portraits. It tests all of your skills as an artist, a painter, and more.

I'm sure I would find studying under a contemporary, professional portrait painter to be the most rewarding. That's not really my style. I'm more of the self-taught type. So that's what I did. I searched and researched online and on YouTube and found sites with John Singer Sargent, Aaron Westerberg, Ben Lustenhouwer, Matt Philleo, Konstatin Sterkhov, to name a few, and others.

I'm still learning and not ready to debut any work. You may have noticed one portrait I worked on, which was in my last blog post. It was a watercolor portrait of a young Claude Monet from an 1865 photo by Carjat. What fun to paint.

Since it's the holiday season and a time for gift-giving, I guess you could say I painted a portrait, of sorts--a portrait of a family member's pet. I think it makes a great personal gift and one that will hopefully be loved by the recipient for years.

Happy Holidays from The Painting Life!