I thought it might be interesting to put together a series of images to show the progression of my recent portrait of my Papillon, Grendel, so you can get a behind-the-scenes look at the process of creating a custom pet portrait.

This post is a little on the long side, but don’t worry–it’s mostly pictures!

This is the reference photo I as working from.

And here’s the initial drawing, all ready to go.

I started with Grendel’s tail and worked up his back toward his head, so I could work with the way the fur overlaps.

Then I worked on the white part of his face and filled in his eyes and nose.

I didn’t like how the darker area under his nose looked, so I lightened it up then moved on to the mouth.

Working on the ears. This little guy has a lot of ear!

Filling in the brown areas of his face. Now it’s really looking like Grendel!

He’s almost done. Now it’s time to start on the background.

Building up the background. I find green and blue make good background colors for many of my portraits. They provide a nice color contrast that allows the pet to show up well and look natural.

I didn’t like the unevenness in the background color between the left and right side, so I tweaked it. One of the great things about this medium is that you can always add another layer on top.

All done, and it looks fantastic!

Would you like a custom portrait of your own pet? You can check out the process here or email me at tamara@tamarajaeger.com with any questions!

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