This is a portrait painting of Patrick with his puppy labradoodle pet dog called Blue. I created this painting before Christmas. It was commissioned for the little boy’s parents as a Christmas gift. I painted a few paintings for my client Orlaith, including a painting of her dad Aidan with her horse Cash and another of her bay horse Q/Only Browsing. You can read about these previous projects by following these links: Cash’s painting and Bay Horse Painting. This is the fourth commission from Orlaith, this time it was her dad Aidan that contacted me to paint this portrait for his son and family. It features his very cute grandson Patrick who owns the most gorgeous puppy labradoodle. The labradoodle is called Blue and is so big already! You wouldn’t think he is a pup.
The painting is 40 x 30 cm in size painted in acrylics on stretched canvas. I had a number of reference photographs to work from. I pieced them all together to create one composition for the painting. I had one of the boy, Patrick, one of his puppy, and one for the setting my clients wanted me to use for the background. Patrick is standing with Blue in his back garden. I removed the parasol from the scene to declutter the image and bring more focus on the main characters.
From the photos I had, it was difficult to establish how large the puppy was in comparison to the boy’s body. I contacted my client before beginning the painting process to make sure I have the sizes all correct. I prepared a digital mock-up. I usually work this way to make sure my clients are happy with how their commissioned portrait will turn out.
Orlaith and her father were very happy with the resulting painting and Orlaith collected it from my studio here in Kilcock just before Christmas. I hope her brother and his family were happy with it too 🙂
Hi Ivana! Thanks for sending the proof through, looks fantastic! I’m here with my dad now and we got to look at it together.
Orlaith and Aidan reflecting on the scanned image of the finished painting, Clane county Kildare, December 2025
I worked in several steps for the painting, starting with a simple line sketch in yellow ochre. Because I was capturing Patrick and Blue in full body, the size of their heads was quite small. I concentrated most of the detail here to capture their likeness. I worked the background in less detail to create a backdrop to the main characters.
There is still a good bit of detail in the painting. I used a selection of brush sizes to capture all, but the smallest brushes were kept for the very detailed areas of Patrick’s and Blue’s faces.
The painting was painted on stretched canvas. This mean it can be displayed / hung without any framing. Most of my clients decide to have their paintings unframed or frame them themselves.
I am currently accepting commissions for portraits, be it family or pet, and any other interesting projects. You can contact me at info@trueimage.ie with your photos if you would like to discuss your own portrait commission.
