In the painting the right one is a little higher than the left one and just a touch too far to the right. It's been my experience that if the eyes aren't exactly in the right place the whole piece looks a little off. More contrast would help a bit too. Black is tough to work with, especially in water colors.

but lose things as the paint goes down. I'm going to do heavier lines on the next one. Mostly I am nervous that if I had trouble making an exact copy of a model, that tweaking to make it look like Maggie could be really tough. But I love this pose and happy expression, and that's how I want to commemorate her for her parents, so I am taking on the challenge.

I would use the good paper because all of your art deserves the best paper, best supplies in general!

also, she is black, paint her black. use a small number of strong white lines.
the eyes, nose, and mouth have color. but yeah, she's a black dog.
my sister is a pro photographer and i asked her once how you can take a picture of a black animal and she said- light it from the back.

corrections. I think big might be cool, but I don’t want to wrestle with more pulp. I’m definitely going blacker, but I do like the granulating effect of the sodalite. I might mix some stains in with it.

As for white lines, I’ll mask a few plus pupil highlights.

results with umber and blues or stains and the sodalite. But I might get some LB in the future if I'm ever feeling plump in the pocket. LOL

So incredibly pigmented and wonderful, aren’t they?

as anyone. dont think i ever saw an episode that he didnt say-
if you vant to show light, you have to have dark.

and cool blacks to help show the light are my goal.

there are many blacks. i tend to favor the warm ones, as w most colors.
there are 2 reds on the color wheel which few people can tell apart.
one if my favorite color. a true color.
the other is just, just, the opposite.

a few steps down that wheel, and the contrast is not there.

but, ya know, lights and darks.
warm and cool.

to really put it on paper, you need to see both. and use that.

I'd make the shading on the inside of the eyes a bit darker so they look a bit more recessed. Other than that, I'd say you're pretty darn close. Nicely done!

for art to be true, you must see clearly.
no art comes to those who dont first see..

You’ll do fine.

I have complete faith in all the artists who post here and many gave very good advice. Did I sound snarky? I certainly didn’t mean it that way. So if I did I need to apologize!

i mean, my first thought was ikr? but thought i should say a bit more.

ikr mean? Let’s start over.

Absolutely!