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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

How I made the underpainting for Scout’s portrait. I decided to do the underpainting after I completed Scout’s head-study with colored...

Wishes' portrait will be a challenging artwork. It’s not a complex piece, but it is a challenging one because of the values. (How light...

Odie will be in a beach scene that is meaningful to clients Robin and Mike, a favorite vacation spot. He is not allowed on the beach so...

October 15 I’m working on a new portrait for Karen M. who has had 3 trained Search-and-Rescue dogs: Cooper, Addie, and Rio…all gone to...

Now that the underpainting is in, and I’ve peeled off the masking material protecting the figures (leaving me nice virgin grey Canson...

A couple days ago I shared the steps of masking off the dogs’ heads and the left figure, and doing the underpainting of mountain, lake,...

Putting in the underpainting of the background scene, on a rainy day. The pine tree on the left was done first with colored pencils. Then...

February 28 I've been working for more than a month on just the preparation stages of a very complex, and very special portrait. For...

The last post showed pics taken in the studio with my phone while I was working. But a phone camera doesn’t capture artwork very well....

This portrait has 5 depictions of Remmy (two head studies and 3 full-body) on a river scene, with the center Remmy splashing joyfully...

November 11 Starting a portrait of red Doberman Chloe leaping into the Trinity River. It is a birthday gift from Doug Paul to his wife...

All the pencil colors I’m going to use for Chloe, a red Doberman. Some of the brighter oranges will be for places where the bright...

I masked off the figure of Chloe to add the base color of the river with a smooth watercolor wash. That gives me a nice green base on...