Here's the most recent painting I did, another commission for my neighbor.  He had asked me to do a painting for him to give his wife for Christmas, and after I completed it (sorry, I forgot to take a picture), he asked me to paint their Christmas card, which had pictures of all of their animals on it, seven dogs and three horses. 

His wife does dog shows with some of these guys, and the grey dog on the far right is like a national champion pure breed or something.  I don't know much about these things, but it's pretty cool that they have one of the top show dogs in the country. They get on tv! So this is the painting I produced from the card:

Acrylic on canvas, 16"x20"

The black and white dog, 2nd from the right, was in a different position on the card, but he had sent me a couple of photos of her for the other painting I did, and I liked her better in a different photo. The way she was cocking her head and the adorable expression in her big brown eyes was just calling me to paint.  I'm not really a dog person, I prefer cats..but this little black and white girl, Eva, is the cutest dog ever. 

This painting was probably the easiest painting I've done in a while. Most of the commissions I've been working on in the last several months have had me  in a fit of nerves and some tears because I just couldn't get something right and they took me a long time to complete. This painting almost painted itself. It took about eight days total, which for me is lightening speed for a painting. 

I have to say, it's pretty funny that I've been getting all these commissions in the past 6-8 months. I never had that many before, maybe one or two in the last several years.  Then, this summer, I opened my Etsy shop for custom wedding gown sketches and bouquet watercolor paintings, and suddenly everyone wants me to paint.....animals (mostly dogs) and landscapes! Two subjects I don't actually paint, which is why I had a little trouble with some of these projects haha.  :) I'm grateful for them though, for the extra income and the experience in painting things I hadn't before. And everyone was very happy with their paintings, which makes me happy too, of course!