No. 062, in eight platesAn Alsatian Good Boy

Each portrait is built like a stained-glass window. Dark lead lines carve the dog and the background into hundreds of small panes, and every pane is streaked with fine flowing grain, so fur looks like glass and glass looks like fur. The palette follows the breed: amber, tan and burnt sienna for the coat, inky black for the muzzle, with backgrounds of navy, teal and dusky violet.

Eight plates, one subject, in two moods. Four are close portraits: a noble profile against amber autumn trees, a head tilted with soft, worried eyes, a lighter dog gazing upward with ears relaxed, and a final profile framed by sweeping leaf-shaped leading in cream and rust. The others show the full dog sitting to attention, ears high and ruff fluffed out, once inside a golden arched window, once among teal swirls and once turned aside against twilight-blue panes.

Here the dog fills the frame, so plan around his head. In the seated plates his ears and brow sit in the upper third, and the clock lands across them; a bold clock font and a darker tint make it clearer. The close portraits put the face at mid-screen, where Home Screen widgets would cover it, so the dog is happiest with a light grid of icons and the dock along his paws. Mid-to-dark tones throughout keep white labels comfortably readable.

Owners of German Shepherds, dog lovers who like their pets painted with ceremony, and anyone fond of stained glass will find a favourite here. Autumn Profile and The Head Tilt are free to download in full resolution; the remaining six are premium.