Scout portrait in progress 12 - Finally, the underpainting

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 remember I masked off the figures of Scout and made a green and gold underpainting around them. Since then I’ve been working on Scout’s black and white coat with colored pencils over the grey paper color (the masked-off areas of virgin grey paper). Now I’ll be working with colored pencils on top of the underpainting, making grass blades and straw bales.

Triple portrait of “Scout”.

Scout’s Chase RATM RATCh ThD

Commissioned by Annette Riehle.

🎨 Prismacolor pencil and acrylic wash on “Flannel Grey” Canson Mi-Teintes paper

20 x 26 inches.

Scout’s barn hunt reference photo is by Jackie Singer.