A Dog Day Month 3 is the third installment of the dog day oil painting project from the artist James Swanson. The project pays tribute to his Amber man’s best friend. James created a dog painting a day from the inspirational photos sent to him by friends and art admirers. A total of 28 paintings were created for this year’s calendar! This calendar and paintings will be sold to benefit Young at Heart Senior Adoption Shelter in Palatine IL See more of James’s paintings at www.J

The photo Christina sent in for the project. Yes, Stosh is a character and great member to Christina's family. "Stosh" 16"x 12" oil Here are the steps I took in painting Stosh- Step #1 sketched in drawing on toned canvas. Stosh wasn't an easy paint. He had quite a few things I needed to think about. Black or white dogs are a battle of contrasts. It always seems the middle tones of color get left out. The design took some thought too. Step #2 blocking in the dark colors. Reall

Day #9 in my Dog Day Month3 painting project is "Sonny" a 16x12 commissioned oil painting portrait that was auctioned off for the benefit of the Young at Heart Senior Adoption shelter. Sonny's owner is Claudia Harty. Here you can see how I painted "Sonny". Sonny is a senior adoption from Young at Heart, and was an honor to paint him up.

Goldens have a very special place in my heart. This whole project was started because of the loss of my golden and great friend Amber. "A Penny for your Thoughts" 12"x16" oil Penny's pet owner is Cathy Venturella. Here are Penny's painting steps I did yesterday. Step #1 roughly sketched in on toned canvas. Step #2 Mix my palette of colors for the painting. Step #3 Paint in the dark areas of the painting to create the structure for the painting. Step #4 Paint in the backgroun

Day #4 "Dougal" 16"x20" oil Pet owner Sean McMahon U.K. The Dougal painting started out a couple of years back as a demo for a pet workshop I was giving. It was close to being finished, today I finished Dougal. Here are the painting steps from the workshop for Dougal. Step #1 The Dougal sketched in on a toned canvas. Step #2 - Blocking in Dougal. A quick big brush block in getting the big areas covered. Always a bit weird painting live in front of people, so I painted fast to

Daisey was submitted by old my friend Peggy Walters. Peggy is the first person who has been in everyone of my Dog Day Month painting challenges. Thanks Peggy Day #3 Daisey's painting steps journey. Step #1 toned canvas and Daisey sketched in. Step #2 Paint in the darks. A ton of dark colors in her. I really had to pay attention to where the warm darks and the cool darks went Step #3 Blocked in. The painting is starting to take form. Step #4 Things a fitting into place now. A

Day #2 in My Dog Day Month3- "Mongo" 12"x16" oil Pet owner is artist Julie Skoda a good friend and great pastel artist. These are the painting steps I took for Mongo's journey- Mongo sketched in on a toned canvas. Kind of felt like walking away at this point. Just wasn't happy with the drawing. Painting the darks in on Mongo. Mongo painting blocked in. Time to tighten it up. Mongo is pretty much finished. He's very wet on the easel.

Day 1 painting "Moss in the Water" the finished 12"x16" oil painting​ These are the painting steps I took on Moss's journey. Step #1 Tone canvas and sketch in painting composition. Step #2 paint in the dark colors first. Step #3 Work in the mid tones towards the light. Step #4 All blocked in. The guts of the painting are in place. Now it's time to rework the painting.