Exactly one day after getting back from vacation, I received a request for a wool watercolor pug commission. My workshop was not unpacked and I thought I was out of felt for my watercolor backgrounds so I set expectations for a longer than normal timeline for finishing. Well, I set them appropriately for everybody but me! Immediately, I went up and dug around and found one last piece of felt so I could get started.

I start all of my watercolors by outlining my design first. In this case, I used the cream color of the pug and also started lightly filling in. This way, I can make sure that my eyes and ears line up and are similarly sized. I also have a small build up of nose on here. It is difficult to see but it is the start of a three dimensional nose.

From there, I built up the eyes, ears, nose and cheeks. I always print out a photo of the commission subject and compare as I go to make sure that I get all of the nuances. Sorry that I do not have more in process shots but I went into frenzy mode and completed this quickly.

Normally, I don’t do much to the felt background but the buyer requested a Starry Night influenced background in this case. I also needed to decide on the matboard color. The buyer requested a neutral and I wanted to pull from a color in the painting. The options were subtly different between cream or tan.

I decided to go with the cream. This little guy came in at the perfect time to ignite my excitement to get back in the workshop. In the end, this pug commission was completed and shipped 2 days faster than the new felt that I thought I needed to start it even arrived.

My next blog will be about an online workshop I am taking on felted bags. I am doing all animal themed bags. The first is a cat glasses case, the second is an owl in a tree purse and the third is going to be a dragon head backpack. My backpack is still under construction. Please subscribe to my blog to see how they turn out.