Earlier in July I got to complete a custom 18″x12″ pet portrait of an adorable dog named Peanut. My client requested a purple floral background for this piece, so I sent him some style ideas and we decided on this ‘mod’ graphic style flower pattern. I had a reeeally fun time sketching and creating this custom background:
(background design stage, plus product testing)
As I already knew from doing my Minimalist Portrait series… “simple” looking designs are usually the hardest ones to pull off lol. This background took approximately 3x longer than I anticipated, but at the same time I found the meticulous process very satisfying & relaxing. Not sure how that works, but I’ll take it haha!
This is the first time I’ve done a background like this, and it was also the first time I used a dipping pen with paint:
(If you are having trouble viewing the above image, you can see it HERE)
While working on the background I was having difficulty using my usual brush, so I opted for something different. I tried an acrylic paint marker first, but it kept clogging so I gave up on that quite quickly lol. So on an impulse I busted out my dipping pen set which I’ve hardly used before, and it turned out to work perfectly for this project, which was exciting!
I really enjoyed making this piece, and I hope I can incorporate patterned backgrounds into future work as well.
And just for fun here’s a close up pic of Peanut 🙂 :
To view the full image of this painting, please visit my Pet Portrait Portfolio Page.
