Carefully working the greens of the background around the back-lit hairs of Shasta's ears. Unlike the underpainting technique on the wispy edge of Shasta’s chest (see the technique on this post), filling in around the hairs with pencil requires some careful and precise work. Much slower going than the underpainting, which is the reason I use that technique (when I can).
This close-up shows the pencilwork. I’ve sketched in lights and darks of the forest background on the grey paper to help guide me as I fill in the detailed greens of the forest. You can see how many different green pencils I’m using just in this small detail. Warm greens, cool greens, light and dark greens, and some golds and green-browns.
Here's the whole artwork. You can see the shape of the path emerging on the left, and the landscape becoming “three dimensional”. The part I'm working on now, around Shasta's head, is much more painstaking than when I did those ferns on the left. Because I want Shasta to be perfect. The whole purpose of the background in a portrait is to frame the subject.
🎨 Prismacolor pencil on grey Canson Mi-Teintes paper, with blue watercolor wash on the bridge.
“Shasta”, an Australian Shepherd on a forest trail where she loves to hike with her beloved people.
Commissioned by Diane Barnes as a gift for her son Takeshi and his fiancé Cheryl.
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