Introductory Project - "Partners"

In the holidays before starting uni, we were all sent a load of information in the post about starting university including maps, an equipment list etc. There was also a brief in with this titled "Partners," asking us to create a life-sized portrait of a partner to present to the rest of the class.

The brief stressed that a partner does not have to be a love interest, and could be for example a partner in crime, an imaginary friend etc.

After a lot of thinking and doodling of ideas here's the final piece I created:

The idea behind this is that it's how I imagine my dog Suzi would look if she were human. She has strangely human characteristics anyway, and she's very loyal, shy, playful, cheeky and just generally good to have around.

The image was put together in Photoshop using photographs I took and a couple of pictures from iStockPhoto, and then painted onto the canvas, which is about 5 feet tall, with acrylics. She has various items with her that say something about her personality, and she's set in the four colours that dog's can see.