In May, 2019, the family of one of my closest friends Robby held a graduation celebration at their house for Robby, our equally close friend Harry, and myself. It was exciting to have graduated from Wilmington Early College High School and Cape Fear Community College after five years, and for us to be able to spend time with our families. But in addition to that, my friend’s parents told me they were interested in commissioning a painting from me of Robby’s wonderfully energetic Malinois X named Rogue. I had met Rogue several times at this point, so I was equally excited by this opportunity not only to paint a dog I knew and cared for, but to be able to make it for a friend.

The initial plan was for me to create the commission for Robby’s birthday, and later that Christmas, but both plans fell through. Fortunately, Robby’s stepfather contacted me during the summer of 2020, and sent me some great photos of Rogue to work off of for the following winter. After my Fall 2020 courses and work that winter break for another commission, I finally was able to start painting Rogue. Because this commission was for a very specific dog, unlike my typical pieces which just depict a species, I took extra care in sketching accurate proportions. Then, as is my usual strategy, I started in lower stakes areas of Rogue, like his chest and legs, before moving onto his much more delicate face. I was a little rusty at first, since I had had been almost a year since I had worked much with watercolors, but I always find it freeing and fun to paint fur! By taking my time on this piece, I was able to really capture Rogue’s appearance without too much difficulty, imbuing all sorts of hues and details from the photos I was given.

While Rogue felt like a fairly straightforward process to me, the background felt anything but. I have always struggled with backgrounds, and this particular yard was one of the most difficult I had ever faced. Watercolors is ideal for painting darker strokes onto lighter backgrounds, so painting light grass on top of a dark background was not an option. Therefore, I was going to have to improvise. After several halfhearted attempts, I settled for approaching a likeness of grass in whatever way felt easiest to me, rather than closely mimicking my references. After painting green and brown washes, I painted dirt shadows of gaps between the grass. Then, I layered my grass silhouettes with yellows, blues and browns to imply shading. The result, while not perfect, allowed me to finish this painting in a reasonable time and in such a way that it complemented Rogue rather than distracting from him!

Through this painting, I not only retaught myself how to paint with watercolors but grew into an even better painter. While I gained more experience in painting larger and more realistically, this painting is one that really challenged my background painting skills, and despite this easily being one of the most challenging watercolor backgrounds I could have faced, I’m happy that instead of forcing myself to mimic the reference exactly, I trusted my own abilities. Most gratifying, I was able to not only grow by tackling a new commission, but through doing so was able to surprise Robby with a piece of his furry best friend!