Been a long time since I did a pet portrait. Out of practice again. But I thought I’d share this in-progress pastel. The execution needs work, but I like the concept. This is “Bark,” a boisterous boy who recently died. Like so many Australian shepherd mixes, he had strange, striking eyes.
Hey, I like that! How much more of his face are you going to do? Not too much, I hope — the “unfinished” look is kind of appealing, and more soul-full.
Very nice.
Very nice.
Thank you. 🙂
Pat … what you see of the face is what you get. I wanted to do an extreme close-up focused on the eyes. And I like the unfinished edge, too. Didn’t plan to use it that way, but it works.
This will probably just end up being a study for me to keep. I’ve got other ideas for the final piece.
I like…bet he was smart too…
They were bred with those eyes to freak out silly wayward sheep and the odd human … beautiful painting. You really got the spirit there.
Thank you, bumperwack and Will.
I know Aussie mixes usually are smart, but given that Bark was in competition with my Ava for who could get quilled most often by porcupines, I’m not so sure about his brains.
Will, LOL. So that accounts for the bizarro Aussie eyes and the creepy border collie stare, eh? Yep. Both are plenty freaky (though when it comes to divine design, somebody should have told the Big Guy that it really doesn’t take that much to freak out a sheep). Weirdly matched dog eyes disturbed me a lot when I was a kid, I know that.
Those eyes are talking…..great job of capturing that :)…..I love the colors, too……
I had a Sheltie once that had two different colored eyes, never did get use to that LOL…he was a cool dog regardless…..
I like the edges that way, too….gives it another bit of interest……
Bark lives on!
Great picture! Please consider making prints to sell. 🙂
MamaLiberty & naturegirl — you’re so nice. I must admit that picture is growing on me. But the idea of making prints hadn’t occurred to me. Hm. Would people want to look at somebody else’s dog? But yeah, as naturegirl said, those eyes really “talk.”