Pet Portraits and Wildlife Art

A couple more updates on the german shepherd pet portrait, this is Macey, an 8 year old bitch I am working on so far. I had intended to get further on with this today but other problems arose.

I have started work on the body in this next update of the pet portrait, so far I am using about 20 different colours to achieve the fur texture and there is no layering whatsoever, it does prove a bit of a challenge.

And finally... it is with real sadness that I have to report poor Pickle died today, it seems he suffered a stroke and came bounding out of his little igloo this morning all lop-sided. I can honestly say I am quite gutted as although he was tame, since his operation he had been a little spoilt and had come to live in the living room in a carry cage. As well as his excursions out into his pen in the garden he was allowed to sit on my lap every evening to watch tv and he would come out of his cage just to be with us so he did become something of a special pet. I feel a bit silly saying I'm more than a bit upset about a little guinea pig but he was, as are all the others, a rescue, he was originally called Snowflake and had been taken back to the shop and was desperately seeking a home at almost 1 year old, so you already know what happened next, as with all strays, he came to live with us a few years ago and really did have the life of guinea pig dreams. Anyway, I now have to decide whether or not to replace him or not to give another little piggy a good home, but it's far too soon to even think about that. Hilariously, all of our pets receive a full burial, little coffins and a stone in the garden (I think we put stones on them to remind us were they are as we have a big garden and it would be awful to dig them up or forget who was where!) So Pickle is going to join Pip, Squeak, Clover and Pixie in guinea pig heaven, I hope they get lots of dandelions!