PAINTING A DOG A DAY
(and a cat)

Learn to paint lively, personality-filled pet portraits with confidence, looseness, and heart.

No stiff, lifeless pet paintings here.

SIGN ME UP!

COURSE OPENS JULY 22ND – $159

Early Bird Price $129 Thru 7/21

You love animals…but painting them can feel surprisingling hard.

Maybe you’ve experienced this:
You find a great photo…
You sit down excited to paint…
And somehow the final portrait just feels… off.

Maybe:

The likeness isn’t quite there
The anatomy feels awkward
Fur becomes overworked and stiff
Colors feel muddy
Your loose beginning turns into tight frustration
You aren’t sure how to simplify all those details
Black fur feels impossible
White fur looks flat
Cats suddenly feel like an entirely different species to paint (because they are!)

And perhaps the biggest frustration?

You know the animal has personality… but your painting doesn’t quite capture it.

That can be discouraging, BUT it’s also COMPLETELY learnable!

READY TO LEARN!

PAINT A DOG A DAY (AND A CAT TOO)

A comprehensive acrylic pet portrait course designed to help you confidently paint animals with expression, structure, and personality.

Inside this course, you’ll learn how to:

✔ Choose references for strong paintings
✔ Understand copyright
✔ Read anatomy beneath fur
✔ Build an intentional portrait palette
✔ Paint loosely without losing accuracy
✔ Handle different fur textures confidently
✔ Capture facial features and expression
✔ Troubleshoot paintings that go sideways
✔ Practice with a bonus reference library

This course will support you in many ways!

LET’S DO THIS!

For $159 you will learn…

REFERENCES

Learn to choose compelling references, photograph pets, improve images through editing, and makes stronger design decisions

ANATOMY

Kim introduces her “drawing through” method to help you identify skeletal structure, feature placement, and spatial relationships—even under fur.

COLOR PALETTE

Explore Kim’s pet portrait palette, wet palette system, and color mixing approach so you can create believable, expressive color.

PAINT LOOSE

Discover a hybrid approach to working directly with paint—starting loose, gestural, and full of energy.

SMOOTH COAT

Paint a sleek-coated dog while learning likeness, structure, loose realism, and expressive color choices.

SPOTS AND CURLS

Explore separate markings from modeled form, handle contrast, paint expressive features, and maintain looseness.

FLUFFY FUR

Learn to suggest texture, hidden structure, puppy proportions, and dimensional fur without overworking your painting.

AND A CAT

Discover feline proportions, gesture, weight distribution, and strategies for handling intricate color patterns without tightening up.

I WANT IN!

Bonus Lessons

COPYRIGHT BASICS

A practical lesson every working artist should understand.

Learn how copyright impacts your photo references, commissions, and original artwork so you can create confidently and professionally.

You’ll learn:

  • Reference photo usage basics
  • Client photo considerations
  • Protecting your artwork
  • Copyright registration basics

WHEN THINGS GO SOUTH

Even experienced artists hit the wall.

This lesson helps you diagnose what’s actually happening when a painting feels off.

Is it:

  • proportions?
  • values?
  • edges?
  • focal point confusion?

Kim shows you exactly how to troubleshoot and recover.

Live Zoom Event

Also included as a bonus…
A Live Launch Party

In this 90 minute live session, participants will learn the history of Painting a Dog a Day, what makes this work distinctive, and view a slide show of portraits created in the project. We will discuss how to approach painting centered on a specific likeness and the hallmarks of doing so inside a small window of time. Q&A will follow the presentation. This session will be recorded and added to the class library.

Date will be in July – students will be notified of date/time with plenty of notice.

Who this course is for:

  • You love animals and want to paint them better
  • You want expressive acrylic portraits
  • You struggle with likeness
  • Fur texture overwhelms you
  • You want a repeatable pet portrait process
  • You paint commissions or hope to someday

What is included:

  • Full step-by-step video instruction
  • 10 focused lessons
  • Multiple complete pet portrait demonstrations
  • Bonus challenge references
  • Photo editing guidance
  • Troubleshooting strategies

Designed for ALL artists for just $159.

SAVE MY SPOT!

Meet Kimberly Santini.

Your guide on this journey.

Kim Santini is known for creating expressive, joy-filled animal portraits bursting with life, movement, and personality.

Her work balances strong design, intentional looseness, rich color choices, and believable structure—without becoming stiff or overworked.

In this course, Kim walks you through her real process step by step so you can understand not just what
she does……but why.

Because when you understand the “why,” you gain the confidence to make stronger artistic decisions of your own.

READY TO JUMP IN!

Love notes from students…

  • Kim’s class is one of the best workshops that I have ever taken. I appreciated how well she was able to articulate her thinking process and how she shared her struggles throughout the passages and how she worked through those issues. Also the layout of the lesson plan and the filming were just so professional and well done. If I could give this course a 10 star rating I would.
    Rebecca W.
  • I took Kim’s course to loosen up and free myself of the preciseness of copying realism. I love the layering effect giving the piece an airy mystical effect. Kim’s thought processes were very inspiring and gave me new ways to think about subject matter. This course is worth exploring if you want to change how you can think, draw, and play with ideas for a totally unique way to paint.
    Brenda S.
  • Kim’s class is easily the best class I have ever taken! I thought I knew a fair amount about colour theory, design, etc., but hearing Kimberly express her thinking as she paints is illuminating. As a landscape painter, I have shied away from painting real objects as I felt it would be restrictive, but my love of Kimberly’s work prompted me to take a step into the unknown, and I was so wrong! Kimberly’s approach is liberating and fun.
    Nicole H.

Ready to Paint Your Furries Faves?

Imagine this…

Instead of avoiding pet portraits…

You confidently choose a photo.
You know how to simplify what matters.
You mix stronger color.
Your brushwork stays expressive.
The likeness actually looks like their dog.

And most importantly?

The painting captures personality.
That spark.
That presence.
That feeling that makes someone say:

“That’s them.”

ENROLL NOW FOR $159!

Join Kim Santini inside Paint a Dog a Day (and a Cat, Too) and start creating expressive pet portraits full of life, charm, and personality.

Course Supplies

Supplies You’ll Need for This Class

Below is a list of what I’ll be using, but please don’t feel like you need to run out and buy anything special. Use what you already have on hand. If you’ve got a different brand, a different size, or even a totally different tool that does the job, go for it. This is about making the process work for you, not matching my setup item for item.

Substrate:

  • Sketchbook or notebook
  • Ampersand gessobord – 6×8, 8×10, 9×12, 12×12

Paint Colors:

  • Golden heavy body acrylics:
  • Titanium White
  • Light Ultramarine Blue
  • Primary Cyan
  • Cobalt Blue
  • Smalt Hue
  • Prussian Blue
  • Light Bismuth Yellow
  • Cadmium Yellow Dark
  • Raw Sienna
  • Light Magenta
  • Light Violet
  • Pyrole Orange
  • Cadmium Red Dark
  • Alizarin Hue
  • Neutral Gray 8, 6 and 3
  • Paynes Gray
  • Burnt Umber
  • Cobalt Violet

Paint Brushes:

  • Round brush – 2, 5
  • Rigger brush – 2
  • Filbert xl – 6
  • Long flat – 2, 4, 8, 12
  • Chip brush – 1 ½ inch

Other:

  • Smartphone
  • Photo editor (I will be working with an iphone and apple’s photo editor)
  • Procreate and notanizer
  • iPencil
  • Wet palette
  • Basic pencil
  • Brayer
  • Baby wipes
  • Shop towels
  • Isolation Coat Medium

Please use what you have to get started.

Terms and conditions:

By enrolling in this course, you acknowledge and agree to the following:

  • This course is designed to provide guidance, exercises, and inspiration to help you grow in your artistic practice. While many students experience personal breakthroughs, increased confidence, and artistic growth, results will vary for each individual.
  • Participation in this course does not guarantee professional success, art sales, gallery representation, or financial gain.
  • All course content is for educational and personal development purposes only.
  • Access to course materials is granted for personal use only. Sharing, distributing, or reselling course content is not permitted.
  • Lifetime Access: When you purchase a class, you will have access to download the course videos and keep them for your personal use for life. While we strive to keep courses available on the site long term, lifetime access does not guarantee that videos will remain streamable on the website indefinitely. From time to time, we may update, modify, or retire older courses to maintain the quality and functionality of the site. If a course is ever scheduled to be removed, we will notify students in advance and provide plenty of time to download the videos.
  • Refund Policy: Due to the immediate availability of the course, and access to downloadable materials, we do not offer refunds.
  • By registering, you confirm that you have read and agree to these terms.