Willy is a huge and somewhat scary looking dog, with sorrowful eyes. This made him particularly difficult to portray- I didn't want him to look threatening or sad, but it was just his natural expression. Here is a series showing first, the final painting, then the progression of Willy from the red couch to the final painting. The red couch was too overpowering and the composition had too much horizontal movement. I changed the couch size and color, and moved Willy to the right so he is emerging from the side, thus lessoning some of the horizontals. The blue couch worked better but the red pillow was still overpowering, and Willy was too small. I also moved the background objects to the right for more balance in Willy 3. The final Willy to my mind, achieves a balance of elements- every object seems to be teetering or hovering, but balanced just enough that they don't topple over.
Willy 1 Willy 2 Willy 3