Three Dog Days | Day 1: The Angry Dog

It is very easy to paint an animal and be pleased with the results, because he or she is not going to complain about the likeness not being very flattering, or even recognizable.
It gets a little more complicated, however, when you really want the picture you paint to resemble your life model, and you want to give that painting to the owner of the animal. You might try and fail, try and fail. As I did.
I printed out three pictures of my friend Don's dog, Skip, hoping that one of those might be something I could work with. I tend to like closeups, so I thought I would give this one at right a shot first.
Sweet face, right? Well, not so sweet when I was done with it.
My husband said my painting looked like an angry dog who wants to bite something off the photographer. My husband was specific about what part that might be, but I will not name it here.
A friend at work said it looked like the canine version of Munch's "The Scream."
I just think it looks like a dog that is thinking, "You have what I want."
This one was not good enough to give to the pet owner.