If you are familiar with Sleep Rover Doggie Hotel & Daycare here in Calgary, then you will definitely recognize these little (well, big!) sweeties!!! When Joyce (owner of S.R.) and I initially chatted about painting a custom Pet Portrait of her and her husband’s pack of 5 dogs, she had one simple request:
“I’d love one of them all smiling except Thor – cuz he looks funny smiling lol.”
That of course is meant with all the love in the world haha! And I’m not gonna lie, it cracked me right up & I was in full agreement all at once haha! I do very much love his serious face.
As far as a reference photo goes – understandably, getting a pic to paint from of all five doggies together posing perfectly would be tricky (but not impossible! These guys & gals actually have a great track record for cute pix together as a group). We just didn’t have a pic available with all 5 pups in the facial expressions we were after, so their mum sent over a bunch of different photos for me to take a look at. And as luck would have it in this case the angles/lighting of the pix worked out perfect to combine 5 different ones togther into one composition!
She also opted to have the detailed background painted in, which features a scene in Banff that they visited in the summer that was really beautiful. And just for funzies, here are some close up pix of each pup:
Bella (Rottweiler)
Mei Mei (Coyote Husky X)
Bourbon (Rottie)
Thor (French Bulldog)
Shogun (Pitbull)
To view the full painting, please check out my Pet Portrait Portfolio.
