BLOG

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

This album shows my technique for making straw in a scene. A whole lot of it. 1 In my last post, I had finished the Frisbee scene, and put in a bit of the straw detail around Scout’s barn-hunt figure on the gold underpainting. It looked like this:  Next I have a whole lot of straw to fill in. If you read my post about barn hunt, you know that Scout is searching for rats hidden among straw. There will be a tunnel entrance below and in front of his face. That’s where you see th

Scout’s head in the barn hunt pose was slow going because it was so important to get his expression just right. I had enough time and energy left the day I finished his face to start putting in the straw around the figure. That goes much more quickly. It’s not necessary to be precise to what is in the reference photo. Now I have a decision to make. Should I fill in the grass next, or the straw…. I will finally be working with colored pencils on my underpainting. You may remem

In my previous post I described how I used the grey paper color, which I had masked off when I made the green and gold underpainting, to give me the right base color for Scout’s black and white coat.  Check out how I use that for Scout’s front leg in this post.  And how I’m starting to utilize the gold underpainting now to make the straw. 1 It took quite a while to do all of Scout’s black coat on his body. There are more pencil colors in a Border collie’s black coat than you

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 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. Any background scene I put in has to enhance the figures, not the other way arou

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. (Value = how...

Last Sunday I shared this as a “Happy Mother’s Day” greeting on social media. I thought you'd enjoy seeing the image on the full sheet of...

This is how the portrait looks now. Wishes begins to emerge from the dark grey paper. The values (how light or dark a color is) have to...

In my first post I explained why the values (how light or dark a color is) in this portrait are so difficult. The values will continue...

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...

🍁 In honor of Fall, I’m sharing autumn artworks from my 40-year career. This is a commissioned portrait of Lakey. Of course it made...

October 18 Started a new portrait of Lacy for Betty K. Here are 8 possible rough-draft layouts. Which is your favorite? Lacy loved the...

I finished the memorial "double portrait" of Lacy for Betty K. Lacy lived in Tennessee with Betty near the Smoky Mountains, where they...

Getting down to the wire on Lacy's portrait. Working on the last rocks on the shoreline. (Lower right corner of the artwork.) I’ve...

Have spent several days working on the rocks and pebbles at the bottom of Lacy's portrait. And adding the water lapping at the edge of...

Now you can see the surprise hidden in Lacy‘s reflection! Betty requested that a dragonfly be included somewhere in the artwork. (see...

I finished the neck of Lacy’s head study, fading downward into the river. I had to put the ripples around and “behind” it before I could...

I'm working on the “second Lacy”, standing in the river (which she loved) in this double-portrait of Lacy, a red Doberman. You can see...