The San Diego Fair sponsored a dog portrait art contest in 2019. I found out about the show about a month before entries were due. I should be able to knock out a painting within a month, right?

Not so fast. The original photo I worked from had the pup centered, lying against a white blanket with one of his paws cropped off. I wanted to change the blanket to a colorful striped background and lift the dog up to show his entire gesture. Engineering the stripes out of my head and expressing the cute fuzziness of the dog were new challenges. Seven months later, voila! I, of course, missed the show. Oh well. I think I learned a lot in this process and had fun making it.

https://www.sherrienielsen.com/portfolio-viewer?collection=142865#lg=1&artworkId=3486068