Thread: Help with dog portrait...

I'm attempting to paint a portrait of my brother-in-law's recently deceased chocolate lab. First problem is that he only has a lousy photo and secondly, I'm not sure how to airbrush such a short haired dog. I've painted a portrait of a long haired dog and that was so much easier. I experimented with some scratching techniques, but it just doesn't look right. Maybe I'm going about it the wrong way. Other than scratching the fur in, I can't think of any other way to realistically represent short haired fur. Also, I'm having trouble matching the brown colors. There seem to be so many different shades of brown here. Any help and guidance would be appreciated. Here is the photo given to me:

Here I zoomed in on the portion of the photo I plan on using:

I agree on finding some different photos for the pose and all.
As to the color, a lot depends on what you are spraying on, and what kind of paint you are going to use.
I'm sure you have seen the dog when it was still alive, with that in mind, what colors did you see when you looked at it? What about it's reflective colors? Many hair and fur colors look to be one color when you look at them laying flat or perpendicular to the light source, but when you see that same fur or hair at an angle, you get tints or halos of different colors showing.
For this dog, it may have looked like a chocolate brown looking at the fur straight on, but gave a red glow or reflective color when it was out in daylight.

For portraying the shorter hair on the dog, go in and block out the colors on the dog, giving it all the natural shade changes and blends that appeared on the dog, you can then go in and add short "Fur" by scratching or erasing them in, and or using a fan brush as a moveable template. By using the fan brush as a template you let the splayed bristles act as masks that happen to be hair thin/thick, and because you would be moving the brush as you spray, you don't get a big rubberstamped look like you would if you tried to make an overall mask or stencil for the fur. You can use the trick to add highlights or shadows, or even to give hints to body contours. Keep in mind though that you as a viewer would only see individual hairs in the areas of the dog that are closest to the camera/viewer, the rest would need to be suggestions and kept simple.
The closer to the camera/viewer, the more the detail will show, the further away from the camera/viewer, the less defined/softer it will be.
Hope that made sense.

Remember that just because there are a hundred shades of brown available, that doesn't mean you have to use them all. Do the base coat with the lightest color or shade of brown you see, then use some reds, rootbeers/browns, and yellows and golds to do the various shades. Because the airbrush isn't going to lay down a ton of paint at a time you have lots of control on the density and viscosity of the paint you do apply, allowing you to get lots of shades out of only a few paints. You can use semi-transparent versions of the lightest and darkest colors to do the hilights and shading.
Avoid the solid blacks and whites, they end up looking flat when used in any larger areas.

Thanks for the advice everyone. I'm using a gesso board and Etac Efx paint. I experimented with scratching in the fur and it just looked to harsh. I'll try the fan brush as a movable template and see how that works. I also like the idea of doing it in black and white, at least as a study for the color values. Font, when using the fan brush, would I lay down a light base color and spray in the darker colors through the fan brush? Maybe alternating darker and lighter browns to "build" up the fur? Also, any recommendations for transferring the outline on to the gesso board? I was thinking of printing it out in B&W to use as a stencil and cutting out the darkest parts, then spray a very light brown through the paper stencil just to provide a guide to make sure everything is in the correct place. Or I can use carbon paper or charcoal on the back of the paper printout and trace over it onto the gesso board. Any one use a better method for transferring the outline onto the board?

Transfering the image is the easy part if you are just looking for outlines, but if you need templates or stencils, then you may want to do your paper routine or even acetate or Mylar. A lot depends on your skill level, and what you are looking for as a final product. You can use a projector, a printout on graph or sectioned paper, you could use a pounce wheel on a paper printout to let you chalk in your outlines and major features

Don't be affraid to mix techniques, using the scratch method, then coming back and doing a light transparent shot of paint over it can give you some amazing effects, especially on whiskers, eyebrows, and ear hairs. Get your self some super fine brushes too. They are always helpful for doing hair or fur. Using a fan brush or a coarser bristled brush with a dry brush technique can also do wonders.

Depending on what you want, you may find that using other peoples/dogs poses would help for distant views. Maybe kind of a colage type of thing, with the bust of their dog large and centered, but smaller renditions of different poses surrounding it. The viewer will focus on the central bust (head and neck/throat) and the smaller renditions would be softer/less detailed versions anyway.

Take lots of photos, and keep notes on what you do, and why. Those kinds of jobs and though proccesses are always interesting to see and read.
Good luck!