Family Portrait (Boston Terriers edition)

I was commissioned to create a pet portrait for a family with four adorable Boston Terriers. I’ve never had occasion to draw this breed before but I could tell from the client’s photos they are charming, affectionate, and greatly enjoy each other’s company.

I started with a pencil sketch of each, working from both the photos the client sent and reference photos of the breed from the web.

After the client gave me corrections on size and some markings I tried a rough color sketch, adding blanket to give some interest and patterns to the picture.

After a few more tweaks I transferred it to illustration board and painted it. The client wrote to say they call their brood ‘the Gustavs’ after Gus, the first one they adopted, and they’re really pleased with this family portrait of all the Gustavs.