# Boxer portraits in Pastel Study > Boxer portraits in Pastel Study: a fawn or brindle coat, the black mask and the wrinkled brow drawn in soft chalk tones on a warm gray ground. Page: https://www.classicalpetpaintings.com/paintings/boxer/soft-pastel Style: [Pastel Study](https://www.classicalpetpaintings.com/styles/soft-pastel) · Breed: [Boxer](https://www.classicalpetpaintings.com/paintings/boxer) ## The Boxer, from boar hunter to family guardian The Boxer took shape in Germany in the late 1800s. German breeders are thought to have bred it down from the Bullenbeisser, the bull biter, a heavier dog that nobles used to run down and hold boar, bison and bear. When the great estates broke up and the hunts ended, crosses to a smaller mastiff-type dog from England gave a sleeker, quicker dog. The English name comes from the way a Boxer spars with its front paws, like a prizefighter, in play or in defense. The AKC registered its first Boxer in 1904. Boxers have worked as cattle dogs, police dogs, war dogs in both world wars, watchdogs and guides for the blind, and the breed was one of the first that Germany chose for police training. In the United States its fame grew in the 1950s around Bang Away, a Westminster-winning Boxer who became a national celebrity. It long sat among America's ten most popular breeds and ranked 18th in AKC registrations for 2025. The standard asks for a square, medium-sized dog with a short, shiny coat lying tight to the body. The head is the breed's stamp: a broad, blunt muzzle one-third the length of the head, an undershot bite, and dark brown eyes whose mood-mirroring character, with the wrinkled forehead, gives the face its expression. The colors are fawn, from light tan to mahogany, and brindle, from sparse black stripes to stripes so heavy that the fawn barely shows through. A black mask frames the muzzle. White markings, when present, may not cover more than one-third of the coat, and white may run up between the eyes in a blaze; a plain fawn or brindle with no white at all is just as correct. The standard describes ears that are customarily cropped and also the natural ear, thin and of moderate size, lying flat by the cheek and falling forward with a crease when the dog is alert. All three Pastel Study Boxers have natural ears. The standard calls for a docked tail. With family a Boxer is playful yet patient with children, and with strangers deliberate and wary; the standard calls its character and temperament of paramount importance. AKC sums the breed up as active, bright and fun-loving. Boxers need ample exercise every day, and the short coat asks for little more than a once-over with a rubber curry brush once or twice a week. ## Pastel Study on a Boxer's short coat Pastel Study is a PetPaintings house style with the look of chalk pastel on toned paper: the pet alone on a plain, warm gray ground, a soft shadow under it, and the fur built up in short, visible strokes. It keeps the pose of the photo, a dog sitting square, lying in the sun or seen close at the head and shoulders, and leaves the yard or the room out. On a Boxer the style is at its best on the head. The strokes follow the wrinkles of the forehead and the folds that run down from the stop, deepen into the black mask, and leave a white blaze or a white chest as the brightest marks in the picture. A red fawn coat comes out in warm tan and russet strokes that model the muscle of the shoulders and thighs; a dark brindle keeps its black stripes laid over the fawn, stroke by stroke along the ribs and legs. The warm gray of the ground sits between a fawn coat and a black mask, so the light and the dark parts of a Boxer both stand clear of it. Two of the three Boxers keep the collar they wore in the photo, one red and one blue, drawn in the same chalky strokes as the coat. ## A Boxer portrait as a gift A portrait made from a favorite photo keeps one moment of a Boxer's face: the brow wrinkled at full alert, the mask, the blaze the family knows. The painting is seen before paying, and another photo or another style is free to try, so the gift can wait for the photo that looks most like the dog. A phone photo is fine. A daylight photo with the face in focus and the whole head in the frame works best, with no people in it. One photo can hold more than one pet, so a Boxer and its housemate can share one portrait. ## Questions ### Can a Pastel Study portrait show a brindle Boxer's stripes? Yes. The painting is made from your photo, so a brindle coat keeps its stripes, drawn as dark strokes over the fawn, as on the brindle Boxer lying down and the young brindle with the white blaze. ### Does my Boxer need cropped ears or a docked tail for the portrait? No. The painting is made from your photo, so it shows your Boxer's own ears and tail. The breed standard describes both cropped and natural ears and calls for a docked tail, but a portrait is of your dog, not a show entry. ### Will the portrait keep my Boxer's white markings? Yes. The painting is made from your photo, so the face, the fur and the markings are your Boxer's. In Pastel Study the white of a blaze, a chest or the feet stays bright against the warm gray ground. ### What photo of a Boxer works best for Pastel Study? A daylight photo with the face in focus and the whole head in the frame. A phone photo is fine. Avoid filters and heavy shadows, which can hide the wrinkles and the edge of the black mask. ### Can I see the Boxer portrait before I pay? Yes. You see the painting before you pay, and another photo or another style is free to try. Only the painting you approve is printed. ## Your pet, in Pastel Study ### Fine-art print - 8×10": $89 - 12×16": $92 - 12×18": $95 - 18×24": $115 - 24×36": $127 ### Luxury canvas - 12×16": $149 - 12×18": $157 - 18×24": $199 - 24×36": $254 - 28×40": $399 - 40×60": $849 ### Digital file - Download: $39 [Upload photo to begin](https://www.classicalpetpaintings.com/styles/soft-pastel)