Here are the steps in a commission of a dog painting. I start with a photograph, then do a sketch and start layering the colors in. While I could whip out a dog in just a few hours, I find if I take my time over a few days and changes in lighting, new colors and tones will jump out at me. This is the scariest part of watercolor painting as there are times where you think there’s no way it will ever turn out.. but you just stick it out and in the end…. WOW!

People take longer and the pose, lighting, etc can affect the time it takes for completion which makes portraits of people more expensive than a dog. Typically it will take longer than a dog or cat, but then we tend to be more “picky” with human subjects. The transparencies of watercolors add a freshness to a portrait of a person.