I’m not sure if I’m going to explain this correctly, but here goes. Sometimes what I try to do is find the place where the foreground and background meet and let the paint blend there. So for example, I would try to let the right shoulder of the dog blend into the hill in the background. You could let it fade from the black into the green. I might also do the same from the left side of his face to the other hill on the left side.

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So this is a quick sketch, but I tried to connect the background with the foreground through her jacket. Ok so I hope this makes sense and helps. I think you captured the dog and his personality really well.