Toast/Jungle Dogs

I received this commission through Minted for the most "fame dog" of Instagram! After painting Toast, I saw her in a Reader's Digest magazine add and on billboards in Portland OR. Toast is a rescue dog who advocates pet adoption vs puppy mill operations and pet stores.

Toast's master commissioned me to paint her three dogs standing at her feet in the jungle. Toast dressed like fashionista Iris Apfel, "Underpants" dressed in Japanese street fashion, and "Muppet" dressed in a British sweater. She would be wearing her Japanese shoes and blue leopard print leggings.

I enjoyed the colors and foliage in this piece, but also realized that I could save a lot of time and add a lot of depth if I used cross-hatch shading and created more dimension with pen, rather than relying solely on watercolor for depth.  After this piece I spent time studying illustrations by Jill Barklem in Brambly Hedge. I would like to practice her technique.

You can see that my drawing is just line based. In future illustrations I would like to have a lot more depth at this stage. 

In addition to puppies, you can find a jaguar, eye eye, lizard, frog and snail in this illustration.