Anatomy of a Special Order Painting

A few months back I was contacted by a kind fan who was interested in having me do a surprise painting for a friend who is also a fan of my work.  The idea was something totally in my style (I'm kind of stuck in the rut of my style for better or worse, but I love it when someone pretty much just wants me to do my thing).  He suggested a figure holding a cat and a dog. And sent a few photos for inspiration. Of course my trio don't look an awful lot like the the real characters but it was fun and easy.

After a bit of discussion I do a pencil sketch for approval. And he loved it.

 Once the sketch is approved the agreement is that the rest is up to me until I'm finished. Above is the red gesso I always start with then after tracing the drawing I start with gold leafing.

 Then it's pretty much flat colors. Since I'm usually working on more than one piece the original layer is usually dry before I return to add shading, and in this case lots of fur.

There is always fine tuning of colors and in this case you can see how things changed as I added more warm colors and exaggerated the shading.

                        And before shipping emailed a finished photo that was well received.