This is a snapshot of some art that I created as a Christmas present for my aunt. It's part of something I figured out how to do late last year, to turn a photograph of an animal into a cartoon-style image.
The way I do it generally only works with short-haired animals that have very distinct bold lines. I have tried this with my own dogs, but the results were not good because they are too fuzzy, and they end up looking like amorphous blobs instead of puppies. My aunt's dog Rowdy, however, has nice short hair. So I asked her for her favorite pictures of her dog, telling her it was for a surprise. She emailed them to me, curious as to what I was up to. So I made up the image, uploaded it to my CafePress store, and ordered a mug and a tote bag with the design printed on it. I'll give it to her the next time I see her.
I hope she likes it (though I don't think she'd tell me if she didn't).
Here is the original photo:
(This is also the same technique I used to create the horse in my Drabblecast illustration of "Malish":