St. Francis Pet Portrait Reverse Glass Painting

New custom pet portrait reverse glass painting in the St. Francis series, finished! I love painting these colorful highly detailed glass paintings. This is St. Francis in Fair Oaks.

Each reverse glass painting in the St. Francis series is painted backwards, in reverse, with richly colored glass enamel paints. Gold and silver metallic highlight swirling stars, whiskers, leaves and more for a soft magical feel.

All of the paintings in this series are commissions with loved companions and animals. Regional flora and fauna are part of the paintings. They are personal custom mementos created especially for each client.

In this most recent painting Snuggles, Buggles, Mocha and Pepper are with St. Francis and friends in a magical forest on a starry night.
Snuggles is hanging out in the tree, Mocha is cuddled in St. Francis arms and kitty Buggles with Pepper are resting at St. Francis feet.

Squirrels, an owl, raccoon, deer, tiny bluebird, bright cardinal with nest, poppies and wild chickens are all part of the charm of this painting.

Below are progress photos, starting with the finished painting.
What a pleasure it is to paint these very personal portraits. St. Francis is an iconic figure who is also one of the original environmentalists!

St. Francis in Fair Oaks, 11" x 14" reverse glass painting,  SueBetanzos.com

St. Francis reverse glass painting. BACK side with one layer of sky painted in.

St. Francis reverse glass painting. FRONT side with one layer of sky painted in.

St. Francis reverse glass painting. FRONT side detail of Buggles and Pepper.

St. Francis reverse glass painting. BACK side detail. Second sky layer.

St. Francis reverse glass painting detail. BACK side. Second layer of leaves.

St. Francis reverse glass painting. FRONT side - Detail of Mocha.

St. Francis reverse glass painting. FRONT side in progress.

St. Francis and Friends is Coming into Being

Almost New Year's Eve!
This St. Francis painting on glass is in the last stages of completion. Bottom darker colors and star trails are left to add before the final stage - the sky. Once layers of the sky are started, there are no corrections. Actually, at this advanced stage of the painting, corrections are not possible because of the 5 - 6 layers of paint for each leaf, animal, branch has been painted many times for depth.

St. Francis painting on glass from the front, before the bottom and sky added.

St. Francis painting on glass from the back. Additional foliage depth has been added.

St. Francis glass painting from the back showing the translucency of the layers in areas. 

The blue paper is inserted behind the painting frequently to evaluate details. It is an important sky preview of darker blue to evaluate light and dark areas, elements (values).

The dogwood flowers are not white, but a light blue to be secondary to the dogs and cats in importance. The white against the blue would have made them come forward too much.
Composition concepts apply to all my paintings: rule of thirds, values, hue, intensity, tone, overall balance.

St. Francis painting on glass, almost finished. Blue paper behind to preview details.

Stay tuned for the last, finishing stages! Then off to the photographer for the professional photos :)

St. Francis Love

St. Francis pet portrait paintings always get a lot of love. Whimsical, cheerful, full of details and color.  St. Francis pet portraits are very personal keepsakes of happy memories with our beloved furry companions.

Visit my Art Of Sue Etsy shop HERE  for St. Francis commissions and prints.

St. Francis and Kitties has been featured in Etsy's Catholic art collection Polyvore religious art, Pinterest, Facebook and more.  Here is this week's featured St. Francis pet portrait image: (sorry about the big watermark.)

St. Francis and Kitties pet portrait. Art Of Sue for commissions and prints.

Big Kitty

On the easel, Big Kitty. A very lovable sweet senior companion who literally came with the farm house. His crooked little paw (from an earlier injury) did not hinder him and his favorite toy was bailing string :)  Love the senior companions.

Best Friends Lucky and Mishka

Portrait of Lucky dog and his friend Mishka are at the framers and will hang in the living room in time for Christmas to greet family and visitors.

 At 10 Lucky is so frisky, playful. Mishka will me-ow so sweetly at the sound of her name - really charming.  Lucky got a make over, taking out the white/grey. Mishka's pose was changed so she could face the viewer. See Lucky and Mishka today at the end of this post. They are the sweetest of companions.

Lucky & Mishka - 18x24" Acrylic 

Original pose and color reference photo (cropped for layout in Photoshop). 

Mishka reference

Younger Lucky, reference photo

Lucky today (I love this picture!)

Lucky Boy :) What a smile!

Mishka - favorite spot, keeping an eye on the front yard.