Saturday October 17, 2026
How I Painted Fanny the Dog
People may or may now know that I work at McKay Bricker in Kent as a custom framer. My boss, Cass, has a beloved Australian shepherd dog named Fanny. This is her sitting in her favorite sunroom chair.
This Tuesday afternoon I turned Fanny into an acrylic painting for her!
When I got this photo from Cass, the first thing I noticed is that there’s a limited color scheme here. A lot of blue-greens, some muted violets, pinks, and creams. Within the area of the dog and surrounding cushion, the value range is limited to a light range except for a few small areas. The value shifts in the fur a very subtle. I knew this would be my main challenge.
I like to work with a limited palette. It simplifies decision making with color mixing. My colors consisted of:
Ultramarine Blue
Cadmium Red Medium
Cadmium Yellow Medium Hue
Phthalo Green
Titanium White
Mars Black
I’m working on a piece of gessoed mat board, approximately 4” x 6”, so the brushes I used didn’t need to be big at all. I did a lot of the work with a small round and a baby round (for details).
I used a small palette made from a piece of glass from an old picture frame duct taped on the edges to a piece of white foam core. I’ve made a lot of these and like to have several on hand to swap out. They’re easy to clean with a razor blade and store in my Masterson Sta-Wet Palette that I’ve had since college.
This is the initial block-in phase. I didn’t start with a pencil drawing. Instead, I use large, loose shapes to lay in the composition. Working loose in the beginning gives me flexibility to establish proportions and analyze the values early on.
This is the painting about 40 to 50% of the way done. I put a dark value into the negative spaces of the chair and in the background. I also start here to define the light side vs shadow side of the dog by laying down some purple and desaturated dark green shapes.
Further along — putting in some of the warm tones of the fur and chair cushion.
The final phase of the painting is a delicate process! Lots of careful observation, laying in small amount of paint with a tiny brush. I took extra time on the head, careful not to overwork the details. I used a light value to define the lightest parts of the chair.
Finished!
When I presented Cass with her painting the next morning, she immediately picked out a piece of fancy gold moulding to put around it! Fanny definitely deserves it!!!