Rayne portrait in progress - The importance of paper color

In 2017 I created this complex portrait of “Rayne”, the 5th portrait I’ve done for Patti Fetzer after each of her beloved Dobermans passed away. (Rayne is still alive and well.) Shown here in progress on “Bisque” (tan) Canson paper.

About choosing paper color

A secret to my success with backgrounds is in utilizing the paper color. The specific paper color is chosen very deliberately to work for/with each piece. The results would be quite different if I worked on a different color paper. Sometimes the decision of which paper color to use for a given piece is not easy. It’s a very important decision (which has to be made at the very beginning) because it will influence every color applied to that paper with colored pencils. This paper is Canson Mi-Tientes “Havana Clear”, formerly called “Bisque”, a beautiful rich, deep tan paper. It’s one of my favorite paper colors, one of several that I choose the most often. For a garden scene like this I can trust the warmth in this paper color to give the scene a warm, summery feel.

Rayne will be standing on a grassy lawn. I explained my method of quickly and easily creating grass with colored pencils in my posts of Portrait of Zelda recently. (Useful tips for colored pencil artists.)

When you see Rayne's portrait finished, it’s hard to tell what color paper it was done on. But you can see it in Rayne’s rust markings, which are almost exactly the paper color. In the finished artwork 4 stars are in the sky, at Patti’s request, representing her 4 Dobermans who are in heaven. 

Check out Rayne’s finished portrait in my DOBERMANS Gallery.

🎨 Prismacolor pencil on Canson Mi-Teintes paper, 20 x 26 inches.

Rayne is from the client’s photo, background elements are from my own reference photos.