Sampson

This is my best friend, Sampson. We got him from the pound almost 9 years ago when he was 10 months old. This doesn't do him justice. He's not really this scruffy looking but I was having so much fun with his fur I got carried away with the texture. I think I gave him Terrier fur. Also, he's only got grey on his muzzle, toes and in his ears. I used a blue to give the highlights on the black but in this photo it reads more as grey fur. I'll fix that later. There are a couple of other things that don't look quite right so I'll look at it for a week or so and figure out where to take it.

Sampson is a German Shepherd/Rottweiler mix. We refer to him as our Shepweiler muttagree so that he doesn't have self-esteem issues. :-) Two breed mixes are the in thing right now so even though a Shepweiler isn't one of the recognized designer mixes, I don't think there could be a better mix. He is super smart, mellow, not an alpha dog, and he looks and sounds scary even though he is very sweet and would never hurt anyone. (Lizards and rabbits being the exception.) Actually, I think mutts from the pound make the BEST pets. I can't imagine finding a better dog than Sam anywhere.

I have been wanting to try painting his portrait for a long time. I even started one about a year ago using acrylic but I left the studio door open one day and a bird got in and pooped on it. It's not ruined but I guess I saw that as a sign that maybe it wasn't a successful painting. Everyone's a critic!

It took awhile to get a reference picture of Sam. Every time I pointed the camera at him he looked this way,

then that way. He refused to look at the camera.
I swear he was doing it on purpose. He's either extremely camera shy or just getting cantankerous in his old age. Anyway, after two days, he finally gave up and I got the picture I wanted.

This painting is done in pastels and I probably will try to do another one in acrylic or oil in the future.

Sampson

Image Size 13" x 18"

Pastel

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Category › dog art , German Shepherd , nancy goldman , Pastel , Rottweiler