Greyhound Painting 'Ace'
This painting of a Greyhound Ace was commissioned by Melissa as a gift for her husband.
“Ace is a rescue greyhound, who is very laid back, unless it is time for a walk” – describes Melissa.
It is quite common with Greyhounds to be so chilled. In spite of being such fast runners, they absolutely love being relaxed and resting pretty much all the time while at home. Greyhounds are one of the oldest breeds in history and have been mans’ best and gentle friends for a long time. Greyhounds make great pets, they are a very loving and calm breed. They usually retire from their running career between 3 to 5 years of age and there are lots of Greyhounds that can be adopted from rescue.
I only have a couple Greyhound paintings in my art portfolio so I was very happy to get a chance to paint Ace.
I haven’t had a chance to meet lovely Ace in real life. Sometimes it is not possible because of the distance. But if there is an opportunity to meet my next model for a portrait I will always be happy to do this!
Melissa emailed me a few different pictures of Ace, it is always very helpful when I have a selection of photos. This way I can learn more about your pet’s personality and see it from different sides. Lots of times while painting the portrait of a dog I look at a few different images of your pet, to make sure I don’t miss anything. And lots of times I can see more clearly the details I need on additional pictures, rather than on the one which had been chosen for the main reference.
In the case of painting of this Greyhound I had to use one of the photos as a reference for the portrait and add a red scarf to his neck from another photo.
I do a lot of work like this, adding or removing some details depending on my customer’s wishes. I can say my custom dog portraits are actually created from a collection of photos and ideas.
The great thing about a custom portrait of a dog is that you can commission a painting the way you would want it to be.
Getting Greyhound Painting Framed
All my custom pet portraits are created in pastel. And this is absolutely a great medium for painting dog portraits, cat portraits or any other pet portraits.
Good quality pastel has a similar pigment to oil paint and it will stay vibrant for years to come. But pastel is a more fragile medium because it can be easily smudged if you are not careful while handling unframed artwork.
That’s why it is recommended to keep pastel paintings framed.
I offer free professional framing to every customer (I have to charge the frame price though). Sometimes I have to post my artworks unframed but most of the time this is when pet portraits will be posted abroad.
While in the UK most of my custom pet portraits are posted already framed.
I offer quite a good selection of frames directly from my supplier.
To see more custom Dog Portraits please go to my Gallery
If you feel like you are ready to go ahead and commission a custom dog portrait, please follow this link to COMMISSION A PORTRAIT. You just will need to fill out the questionnaire and I will get back to you ASAP, I will do my best to help you with choosing the right style and size for the future artwork. Please do not worry, there is no payment involved during this step.
