Portrait of a Saluki Puppy

For Christmas, hubby bought me a fantastic new tablet that I had been fawning over, the Wacom Intuos4 Medium. I'm thrilled! Now I have no more excuses not to get back into digital art.

This is the first piece of digital art I've made in about 4 years, so for my first painting, I decided to do something simple. I used my own reference photo, read a few tutorials, and went to town on Shady's portrait picture. It wasn't cakewalk like I thought it would be (horses are smooth, but dogs are FURRY! Who would have thought?!), but I learned a TON. I spent more hours on this than I can count, and apparently my back isn't what it used to be (or my setup isn't ergonomic) because it hurts... but it was worth it!

I was going for realism, but ran out of steam towards the end, so it's a little flat around her mouth and jaw, and in reality she's a lot fuzzier than that. Overall, I'm pleased with this as my first dog painting ever (and first painting in 4 years, no less! ) and I hope to improve my skills with practice.

I welcome critiques, especially on technique, but do bear in mind I'm more than a little rusty!



Subject: Khamsin's Shadhavar, 5 month old gold grizzle Saluki puppy

Tools: Wacom Intuos4 medium and Photoshop CS5