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Even when a portrait is “finished” there are changes to be made. An artist may think a portrait is finished when they complete the depiction….but is it? When I finished Titan’s portrait I stood back and looked at it taped up on the wall from several feet away. That’s always the last step when I complete a portrait. Sometimes I see things that need a little adjustment. Usually that’s just a few additonal pencil strokes…a few minutes work. But this time I spent a couple more da

After I finished Titan’s paws, I drew the toy. The well-loved tug toy.  Then I finished the shadows under the toy and paws on the fabric. Whenever a figure is resting on a surface in art, there will always be a shadow that "connects" them to the surface. Otherwise it will look like they are "pasted on" the surface, or sometimes floating above it. I could have cleaned up the toy, but I thought it would be better to show that it was well-loved....yet another indication of the p

Completing Titan’s paws… Drawing a hand or paw is as complex and detailed as the features of a face, in my opinion. Upper pic - Going around the edges, building all the edge colors, before filling in all those weird abstract shapes that make up the paw and wrist. FOR ARTISTS: I fill those containing edge colors of the paw first, so I can establish the values (lightness-darkness) of the paw colors against that blue-grey paper. Then work inward, filling in the abstract shapes o

In this pic you can really see the difference between the tightly-detailed pencilwork of the paw, and the loose pencilwork of the fabric. For the fabric I'm making use of the blue paper. In Titan’s rust areas I’m covering the blue paper.  For Titan’s paw I completely cover the tooth of the paper. In the fabric I make use of the tooth: those tiny “hills and valleys” of the paper texture that show through the pencil pigment (see closeup in next pic). In his paw I don’t want any

After I finished the collar I decided to do Titan’s paws next, instead of working my way down his chest. But first I needed to do the blanket. Here’s why: I rendered the fabric in a really loose way, as you see. I wanted to do that with fast, energetic pencil strokes - big sweeping strokes using the whole flat of the pencil core for the broadest strokes possible. I didn’t want to complete the paws first, in case those wild strokes overlapped the paws and I needed to erase the