August 2025 – Rainbow Pet Portraits

Rainbow Sulcata Tortoise Portrait

ink painting, pet portrait, watercolor, watercolour, wildlife art / Squid / August 13, 2025 / pet portrait, turtle, watercolor, watercolour, wildlife art

After painting so many fluffy animals recently, I had the urge to paint a tortoise. This is a sulcata tortoise, one of the most charismatic tortoises you can meet imo.

I had a ton of fun painting the scales on this cutie. Sulcata’s have quite thick spur-like scales down their legs that create beautiful, dramatic shadows. I’m still working on balancing the more subtle scales on the face, but painting each leg scale individually felt right for this guy.

One of my biggest frustrations with painting on wood is how poorly it scans. The yellows and oranges have so much more depth in person that gets lost in the wood when scanned or photographed. But even so, I’m pretty happy with this piece! I’d love to paint more tortoises in the future. Do you have a favourite tortoise or turtle species?

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Rainbow Watercolour Black German Shepherd Puppy Portrait

Here’s another little experimental piece in my struggle to understand black fur! Painting this little GSD puppy felt like pulling teeth. I even had to start over, which is something I rarely do. But I think the face turned out really cute, and I learned a lot. All-in-all, totally worth the struggle.

Now I definitely need a break from these little studies. Be prepared for something new next time!