animal painting

"Murphy" is a painting of my dog.  When I started the painting i was focussed on the grass and getting the right textural look. The goal was to make it look as real as possible. But sometimes things don't go your way and thats ok. i really wanted to capture the highlight of his ears. In the original photo of Murphy he has a caramel dip look on the edges of his ears. That was something we thought would grow out and fade with time from his puppy years into adulthood. I also wanted to emphasize the redness/ pink tones on his noes. As labs grow older their noses get pinkish hues as a sign of age. The brush strokes for his fur were definitely a challenge. In my mind i needed to get the fuzz of his fur in which i achieved that by using a worn out brush and barley touching the paint to the canvas.