Where's Buddy?

This is a new project I am starting on today. You can see from the 1st image that my initial thought was "where's Buddy"? Buddy is at the door ...probably waiting for his master. My first step was to explain to the client that I can do my best to create a fun and interesting piece of art and yet every whisker and freckle on Buddy will not be visible because that detail and info is just missing from the photograph. See detail below.

Keep in mind that this was a high resolution well focused image. When you zoom in to a small area of a photograph and enlarge it, you often find that it can become grainy and not as sharp as you had hoped.

So my next step was to paint and sketch in some details, play with color and see what I can do after enlarging to the desired 18 x 18 size. Check out the image below to see just one of my paint layers with the image layer turned off.



So now I can play with filters, intensify colors and in general see where else I can take this. Click the image below to see the details on this image with an under-painting filter applied, and more color added. I will work a bit longer on this pet portrait project before proofing my client. I think if I start again in the morning that fresh ideas may happen. It will be fun to see where this original and charming photograph ends up after I am done.