A Killer Valentine’s Day Gift Featuring a Dragon-Like Dog

So far as we are concerned, Nick won at Valentine’s Day. To surprise his girlfriend Julie, he commissioned this super fun portrait of the two of them with their dog Gypsy. What makes the portrait extra special is that it is inspired by How to Train Your Dragon. Gypsy makes for a great Toothless stand in, don’t you think? :)

Denitsa did a fantastic job with this illustration. We’re thrilled the gift went over well! To commission an illustration of your own in this style, swing by Denitsa’s commission page.

Backstory Behind the Commission – Q&A with Nick

ArtCorgi (AC): What gave you the idea of commissioning an illustration as a Valentine’s Day gift?

Nick (N): The custom commission seemed like a really fun and unique gift to give. I’m not really a fan of buying generic gifts for people and do try to make an effort to find something special when I can. I figured that instead of the standard Valentine’s Day stuff that I’ve gotten Julie in the past, that this would be something we could both enjoy on a year-round basis. This will make a perfect addition to our place since we use a computer connected to our TV for entertainment, and we’ll use this as a background for the desktop, meaning it will always be front and center in our main room.

AC: What inspired the theme for this piece?

N: Julie and I got our dog Gypsy about a year and a half ago now and she’s been a very loving but very quirky addition to our lives. After we got her, we watched the How to Train Your Dragon movies, which Julie and I loved, especially since the main dragon in the movie reminded us a lot of Gypsy. We’ve had a lot of fun training Gypsy, and her and Julie have become especially close. Additionally, we recently moved to a new city, Vancouver, which is surrounded by the ocean and mountains. It seemed fitting to capture this time in our life with a How To Train Your Dragon inspired commission with an oversized version of our dog to match her oversized personality. It turned out great!