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Portrait of Scout continued from PART ONE   Scout portrait in progress 9   I’m not going to add the colored pencil grass details around the Frisbee figure until I finish the barn-hunt figure. The backgrounds of those two scenes - straw and grass - will have to fade/blend together at the edges. Since the portrayals of Scout are the most important thing, I want to finish the barn hunt figure first. Then create both the straw and grass backgrounds around the two action figures.

July 29 I'm starting a triple portrait of Border collie “Scout”. The following pictures show how I go about designing a complex portrait with multiple depictions of the individual….from the 60 photos of Scout that Annette sent to me.  Scout is a registered Therapy Dog, and also does barn hunt and is a dedicated Frisbee-fetcher.  1 This is my outline drawing on a sheet of “Flannel Grey” Canson paper. It took 11 days of working with Annette on a layout design, to get to the poi

In my mid-20’s I moved to an area far from where I grew up. I began writing letters to my parents, and we continued that for the next 15 years. Many of my letters were decorated with my own artwork. After my dad passed away two years ago, my mom found a box of my old letters they had saved. This was one of them, written in the Fall of 1987. Hand-painted with watercolors, with metallic gold ink on the lettering. Seeing that hand-painted letter from so long ago inspired me to m

Scout's triple portrait is finished. Below is what Annette wrote about her partnership with this amazingly accomplished Border Collie. Prismacolor pencil and acrylic wash on “Flannel Grey” Canson Mi-Teintes paper 20 x 26 inches. Annette wrote: “Scout has been an incredible addition to my life. I met him as a 5 year old, recently retired from a busy working life as a goose hazer protecting workers from angry geese. I have had 3 previous Border Collies but Scout has expanded my

When I was adding the colored pencil to connect these two scenes, fading the straw of the barn-hunt scene into the grass of the Frisbee scene, it was necessary to see the entire composition as a whole. So when I finished adding the straw in a way that felt like it looked good, to check whether it needed anything more I taped the artwork up on the wall of my studio, and stood back to see what the artwork would look like as the client would view it in their home.  I saw then th