Just finished this portrait of Jackson the spitz. Blimey this one went by fast!

I loved drawing this piece, I think the soft purple hues of the background really complement Jackson’s gentle eyes.

A little bit about him from his owner: “Jackson is a rescue, we think he was around 2 or 3 years old when he came into our lives. He’s the biggest derp and the best thing that ever happened to us. His antics always make us laugh and I can’t imagine life without him now!”

I recently started offering bokeh backgrounds for my pet portrait commissions and I love how it looks! Using coloured pencils on pastelmat was a learning experience and I think I might go back to my favourite Saunders Waterford HP, trying to get all the hairs looking thin and delicate was a big challenge on this paper, at least on a small portrait like this one. I think I’ll stick to just using it for soft pastels.

Tools used for this piece include: Caran d’Ache Luminance, Caran d’Ache Pablo, Derwent Lightfast, Holbein and Faber Castell Polychromos coloured pencils, on Clairefontaine Pastelmat. Blended with Daler Rowney Low Odour Thinners.

I couldn’t help but be reminded of an older artwork while making this piece, that I drew waaaaay back in 2015. Back then I did a portrait of another very cute german spitz dog called Taz, in graphite. It was my first ever pet portrait and I was still very new to realism at the time, having moved on from digital illustration! It was pretty nice being able to see just how far I’ve come as an artist in the 6 years between these two portraits. Check out this comparison between the two:

I hope you like Jackson’s portrait! I am currently open for pet portrait bookings from May onwards, you can inquire here if you would like to order one!