Scout portrait in progress 4 - Shiny black nose!

This is my favorite “in progress” pic so far, with Scout's shiny black nose popping out of the paper!

There are lots of detailed shapes involved in a dog’s nose. 

And a range of values from white to black.

1

A dog’s muzzle has lots of small detailed hairs. I started out in the studio this morning working down the white blaze from between Scout’s eyes, adding the black hairs on the side of his muzzle on the left where they meet the white portion.

Then I put in the white and light-grey whiskers and small hairs that helped me precisely locate the edges of the nose-leather (the black nose). Once I made the edges of the black nose, I filled in the interior, completing the nose. 

2

A dog’s nose is “black”, but when you look at a good reference photo you can see that there are all sorts of lighter and darker values in it. The light reflecting off the shiny “nose leather”, and the darker shadows in the convoluted shapes of the nostrils. There is very little/I used very little actual black in this part of the drawing. 

I used the full range of warm greys, from lightest to darkest, the full range of cool greys from lightest to darkest, blue-grey, dark sepia brown, very dark blue, and of course black, and white, pencils.

3

Scout’s head study is really starting to emerge 3-dimensional.

When I sent this to Annette, she responded,

“I am so amazed - I feel like I could reach out and pet him!”

The first depiction in a triple portrait of “Scout”, commissioned by Annette Riehle.

🎨 Prismacolor pencil on “Flannel Grey Canson paper, 20 x 26 inches.

Scout's head study is from a photo by Faith Lyman.