Black background?

In my commission work, I have often been asked to not put a background in or just use a simple background so the focus can be on the dog or person.  I recently decided to try painting more realistically but use black watercolor in the background as a way to pull your eyes to the focal point.  Here are three of my recent works in this style.

Watercolor Portraits

I've been having fun with painting some quick watercolor portraits to use in a demonstration I'm doing next week for a neighboring art club.