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Annie’s eyes are finished. I never get tired of doing eyes, because the colors and reflections in them are so interesting.  What do you see in this eye? This is the right eye in the client’s reference photo — extracted from the rest of the photo so you can focus on just seeing what is there. Focus on the colors, the shapes, and the values (value = lightness/darkness). All those unusual shapes on the eye are the reflections of what was in the environment around the dog. Often

Yesterday I shared Annie’s left ear finished and pointed out that a white coat is easy to do on grey paper. Some light-colored pencil strokes for the hairs.…and the shadows between the hairs make themselves.  I continue using the paper color... Carolyn responded to this in-progress picture: “Look at my pretty princess!!! She’s looking pretty!!!” 2 Check out how much grey paper is showing around Annie's eye. I never get tired of doing eyes. Because the colors and reflections i

I'm starting on a portrait of "Annie" for Carolyn, Gloria, and Tammy. This is the 10th portrait I have done for them over the past 28 years. The pencil colors for her white and cream-colored coat, and the pink inside her ears: Once again I'm letting my paper color do the work. A white coat is so easy to do on grey paper. Some light-colored pencil strokes for the hairs.…and the shadows between the hairs make themselves. 🎨 Prismacolor pencil on “Felt Grey” Canson Mi-Teintes pa

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