Wishes portrait in progress 2 - Continuing those tricky values

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 to be challenging as I work on Wishes. Her whole face has to become gradually lighter as it extends toward her nose, into the hazy light that gives this piece it’s mood. 

My first post showed all the steps I used to capture the unusual lighting. It took all those steps to get to this point, establishing the values on a sheet of dark grey Canson paper — from white on the left to black on the right — to capture the soft hazy lighting in a dark room, coming from a window on the left. Those values will dictate the values I have to use to portray Wishes. 

2

Wishes’ reference photo is on a monitor in front of me, and I’m getting the pencil colors I need lined up. I’m testing them with swatches on scraps of the same “Dark Grey” Canson paper, to check how each color works on that dark grey. Working on colored paper changes the color of the pencils. 

• The swatches on the right show how the different Prismacolor greys look on this paper. Cool greys, French greys, and Warm greys. Those will be the colors I use in Wishes’ black coat. 

• The swatches on the left show the colors I’ll be using for Wishes’ rust markings. 23 different pencil colors. 

3

The highlighted front edge of Wishes face was already in place.  I needed to do that before I could put in the wash of white for the lighting.

I start by working on her ear. 

In the reference photo, Wishes is darker grey on a dark grey background. She barely stands out. But this is a portrait. I want Wishes to stand out clearly.…while still keeping that soft, hazy lighting effect. So I will exaggerate the dark and light values of Wishes to make sure she stands out from the background. Yet all the values of Wishes (a black and tan Doberman) have to also fade from very light on the left of the artwork, to darkest on the right edge of the artwork. The “black” on Wishes’ face will not be as dark as the “black” on her shoulder. 

I started with this ear because this ear is a reference point for my values. All of the values on the front half of her face will be lighter. All values to the right of it darker, going to pure black by the back of her neck. 

This ear is actually dark grey, not black. This piece is so tricky because the values look very deceptive to the eye. Your eye….and MY eye as I was working on it. I had to continually check the values against reference swatches that I had made on the reference photo. (I’ll show you those in another post.) This ear looks black because it’s a much darker value than the dark grey behind it. 

4

I intend to start at Wishes’ nose and work up her face. All of the values on her nose and lower muzzle have to be very light. They have to match the value of the lightened background. I did the background first because I wanted lightened grey paper behind Wishes’ muzzle, as you see below. I will use that lighter grey paper to guide the correct values for Wishes' nose; I'll match it’s value so Wishes’ nose and muzzle barely stand out. That gives the hazy lighting effect.

I am having to use extremely light pressure with my pencils. The lightest I can possibly do and still lay down color/pigment. I keep the color values very faint to maintain that hazy light effect across the front of Wishes’ face.

It looks to you as if Wishes’ nostril is black and the front edge of her nose is light grey. But in reality - the colors of the pencils in real life - those dark and light values are both barely different from the (lightened) grey paper beneath them. The fact that they are different from eachother gives enough contrast to have lights and darks, in the places I need them. Notice the blue-grey at the upper right of Wishes’ nose-leather, is the same value as the paper color.

Yet that is the black nose of a black dog.

5

Next I work my way up the front of Wishes’ face, making the values more pronounced as I go toward the top of her head: the lights lighter and the darks darker. (More contrast between the lights and the darks.)

I intend to do Wishes' eye next and I need a place to attach it. Now I have her rust eyebrow. I’ll work from there around the eye socket area, and then the eye. Those values will be tricky too. 

🎨 Prismacolor pencil and acrylic wash on “Dark Grey” Canson Mi-Teintes paper, 20 x 26 inches.

Commissioned by Alicia McCarthy.