Long Haired Chiguawah..chiwawah...DOG!

[Morris Darby]

(..and I came in second in the third grade spelling bee!)

I painted a lot of animals last year. I don't know how the customers got the idea. I have nothing in my literature indicating I would do animals. From Christmas 2000 to May 2001 I painted 15 pet portraits. After that, I haven't had one request. Funny how that works.

Here is one I particularly liked. My canvas was propped too high and I don't know how to crop a stretched canvas.

[Doreen Lepore]

My grandmother always had one of these dogs and they were all named Chichi. (I don't know if I spelled it right either.)

I don't feel I should offer a critique, being such a newcomer here. However, your Chichi is really cute and the only thing I might recommend, as a commissioned pet portrait painter myself, is to paint the whole dog when you get the small variety as a subject. I'm working on a small guy now, I'll post him when he's done.

The image is a bit blurry on my screen so I wouldn't venture any further comments.

[Lisa Gleim]

Hi Morris,

A trick to make sure your subject is pleasingly placed in the canvas is when you are just beginning to sketch your subject, either with your paint or with charcoal undersketch, turn your canvas upside down. If your subject looks as if it is suspended from the top or sunken down at the bottom, you can adjust your drawing before you begin painting. This will help you avoid having too much space on the top or on the bottom.

Nice portrait, by the way!

[Michele Rushworth]

In case you enter another spelling bee someday, it's Chihuahua.