I worked on an overall wash of indigo blue, leaving the lightest areas untouched. Next, I added dark umber to the grassy areas. Using an electric eraser, I erased blades of grass and filled them with apple green, canary yellow, and white. I used the same greens for the leaves and darkened areas with more indigo and tuscan red.
In this step, I began the dog. He is a newfoundland/saint bernard mix. I began with the eyes and nose because I find them to be the hardest to work on. Once they were done, I added fur direction to the face and body with indigo blue, dark green, and red. I think layering the colors to make black gives more depth to the fur.
Here, I began working on the little girl's eyes and mouth first. I also applied a light layer of peach to the shadows in the face and then a light layer of cream and light peach over everything but the hair. I left the highlights in the hair untouched and added a light layer of jasmine to the rest of the hair.
This is the completed portrait after applying many layers of color. I sprayed the finished painting with Lascaux fixative to preserve the colors.