Maui: A Pet Portrait Commission about How to Increase your Painting Skills

Meet Maui! He is a polydactyl kitty (which means he has thumbs!) who has been with his family for seven wonderful years. They wanted his portrait to reflect not only his very dramatic striping (this is one of the reasons he is named Maui, his stripes almost look like tattoos), but also his thumb. I love it!

Below is a step by step of Maui's painting process and a list of colors used, all mixed with a dash of painting advice.

Step 1: Underdrawing and Underpainting

Underdrawing

As you can see my underdrawings are strange. They are more of a fancy color by numbers map verses a proper drawing. I do this is for two reasons. One, these color maps help me establish proportions and color placement. Which in turn speeds up my painting process. As a working artist, streamlining your process and making it work for you so that you can complete each painting as quickly and efficiently as possible is key to feeding yourself.

Two, as these are not polished drawings I am able to complete them very quickly, and it also means that as I am painting I am not married to my underdrawing. If you need your underdrawing in order to complete a painting, it might be time to up your painting skills.

One way you can do this is by small free hand paintings.

I cannot more highly recommend the book Daily Painting by Carol Marine. It is such a treasure trove of information and practical skill building advice.

She gives you permission to trust yourself and just paint. Which sometimes is all we need.

Underpainting

When I start a painting, I always lay down an underpainting. In order to decide which color to use, I first decide if the shadows and highlights are going to be warm or cool. This will help me create a convincing modeled form.

Maui's shadows are warm and his highlights are cool. I like to match my mass tone and background to the same color temperature as my shadows to help give depth. In Maui's case this means I used a warm Red Transparent Earth for his body and a warm Pthalo + Titanium Zinc White for the background.

Step 2: Shadows, Highlights, Midtones, and Details (so everything else)

Warm Color Palette:

Transparent Red Earth

Van Dyck Brown

Indian Yellow

Pthalo Blue

Burnt Sienna

Cool Color Palette:

Paynes Grey

Lamp Black

Prussian Blue

Pthalo Green

Hansa Yellow

Quin red

I realized the other day that when I am painting just about anything, I always start with the left eye, move up into the forehead, down into the nose, and then into the right eye.

When I am painting a small painting, I do not break down my shadows, highlights, and midtones into complete separate painting stages. Instead I do all three, a section at a time, but always following the same pattern: shadows, highlights, midtones.

A Note on Colors

When painting animals, there is not a more adaptable and necessary color than Red Transparent Earth. So far for 2026, I have six pet portraits in various stages of completion and I have used Red Transparent Earth in five of the six.

Red Transparent Earth is a reddish brown color that gives you that ruddy fur tone we find in orange tabbies to golden retrievers. Mixing it with Van Dyck Brown maintains its masstone while deepening its overall color.

There is one problem, however, with Red Transparent Earth. If you want to lighten it, adding white will turn it to a not great peach color. I recommend mixing it with Indian Yellow instead. This wonderful yellow/orange color will give you the vibrancy of a Red Transparent Earth midtone, without going peachy.

And there we have it. Maui and my first commission of 2026 is complete. Did I miss anything? Have you read Daily Painting, or know of a good skill building painting book I can look into?

If you are interested in commissioning a portrait click the "Commissions" button below.

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