A Portrait of Parker Pup - Step by Step Process

When I first stumbled upon ParkerPup, I was skimming a "hero dog of the year" website. And what makes ParkerPup a candidate for such an award?

ParkerPup is well known in the state of Oregon for his work as a therapy dog.  He spends his days visiting children and adults in cancer treatments and those who have long-term hospital stays. He visits students in school to educate them on cancer and to help them learn to read. He is also a major stress reliever to hospital staff!

Aside from his heroic reputation, ParkerPup's good looks have made his the perfect professional model for companies like Tempur-pedic and Norm Thompson.

Despite his truly handsome classic Golden Retriever looks, ParkerPup is far more than just a cute cuddly doggy gentlemen. Its hard for me to pass up an opportunity to do a portrait of such an honorable pooch! 

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So here's the start of ParkerPup's portrait.  Colors scribbled in for the background. You can see that I started blending them in the lower right corner.

Below, I drew in all the darkest areas (just to mark location and shape).

Hey look - its a dog now! Well, almost... 
Below I laid in the warmer tones of his fur.

That's better - he has eyes and a nose now!
Below I blended the fur colors and laid in eyes, nose, and mouth.

This is my favorite part of every portrait I do - hair strokes!
Below, you can see I began around the eye with dark hair.  The eyes are the most important feature to any portrait, so I prefer to do them first.  It really creates emotion and sets the tone for the rest of the portrait.

Those hair strokes help to create the light and shadow areas that really make the portrait POP! The texture it creates also makes the portrait so realistic that it looks like ParkerPup can jump off the paper!

Below, I also drew hair stokes in with warm mid tones and highlights. (just the face)

And then the rest of the portrait with the same, creating that soft, silky hair texture that makes ParkerPup so cuddly!

Below, you can see all the colors that go into that golden fur - ochres, browns, siennas, bright orange and red!

A few finishing touches, and voila!
Its the handsome, the cuddly, the heroic PARKERPUP!

Be sure to check out everything about ParkerPup online at http://www.parkerpup.com.
To see photos from all his therapy, cancer awareness, and dog hero campaigns, follow him on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ParkerPup