by Annika Cowen

20x20 inch oil painting of my dog, Kasper, completed in 2024

Painting Stages

I began by taking a photo reference of my dog and playing around with it in Adobe Photoshop and Adobe Fresco. I ended up with a very abstract mockup of what colors I wanted to use and how to map out the colors on the canvas. When I began painting, the colors blended together and I really liked what was happening, so I stopped looking at the mockup entirely and only looked at the edited photograph briefly to understand how the fur covered the body to complete the painting.

Edited Photo Reference

I chose to paint this picture because I really liked his expression and how much emotion he conveyed just by staring at me for no reason, as dogs often do.