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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

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...

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...

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'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...

I’ve finished the underpainting on Lacy’s portrait. The Canson paper I chose for this artwork is called “Pearl”, a soft warm grey. My...

September 1 I started a new portrait of Baxter, who is 12 years old. Some interesting facts about Baxter: ❤️ His dad Brian has a...

July 8 My next portrait is Odin (“Odie man”) for Robin B. As Robin was gathering photos and sending them to me, she kept saying, “His...

I’ve put in an underpainting on Odie to give him a nice “red Dobe” base color to work on top of. I chose cream Canson paper for this...

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...

Here’s how I did the crushed velvet that is draped on the podium. The last thing to do in this portrait. 1 Jerky, scribbley pencil...

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...

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...

I'm adding the grass under the two lower Remmys. “Red-ball Remmy” (in the lower left corner) is finished. The patch of grass under...

You may remember the portrait of Remmy I was working on through Feb and March. After an injury in March I had to close down my studio...

I’ve been laid up with an injury for several months and unable to work, so I decided to share some of my earlier portraits with you. This...

The lower-right Remmy (the last one of 6) is finished. If you saw my previous posts, you know that this standing Remmy was from Walt’s...