Progress of a masterpiece

Thanks to everyone for all the well-wishes on my 500th post yesterday! Lots of you asked about my pawtrait that Momma painted for me, so I thought I'd show you the development of it.

Momma went to one of those painting parties, where they teach you how to paint a painting during an afternoon. (There's usually wine involved.) Momma went to a place called Let's Art in Plano, not far from us. She painted Cinderella there about a year ago at an LBR pawty. Yesterday they were having a special "Paint Your Pooch" pawty, so she decided it was time for my masterpiece!

You start by sending them in a picture, and they turn it into a sketch on a canvas. That's me!

Then they guide you through things like mixing colors of paint and show you the order to do your painting. First the background color.

Then you sketch out the outline.

After that, it's time to start the eyes and nose. Momma had a hard time with my eyes, 'cause they're a gorgeous caramel color that she couldn't quite match.

Then you start with the main color. She thought I came out too light at first.

But then once she added my mask and the shading, and it was a lot better! The black around my eyes was really tough.

Then she needed to paint that ledge under my paws. In the original picture, my paws were lying on a bolster bed. In this one, it looks like I'm guarding a stick. Hi, Goose!

Here's the original picture and the final painting. Pretty good, huh?

 Momma was very proud of her masterpiece, and I was proud of her for being such an artist.

She brought it home to show me. It was like seeing double!

Momma had just the right place for it! She hung it right at the wall by her home office, where she'll see it all the time. I think Cinderella and my pawtraits look just wonderful there!