This is Woody, a rather good looking labrador whose portrait was won in a photographic competition at a local vet's surgery and is one of my latest works as a pet portrait artist
This is the pose Woody's owners would like as a pencil portrait drawing of Woody. This photograph was taken a few years ago and since then he has become a little greyer around the mouth....
....so they also sent this photograph as reference for the lighter colours he now has. This is a frequent request by clients for me as an animal portrait artist whose dogs have aged, usually they would like their pet to be made to look a little younger, but unusally Woody's owners would like his more mature colours to be used around hs muzzle
This is the first update of Woody. As you can see there really is no set rule I follow to produce a pencil portrait drawing other than I always start with the eyes. If these are wrong I'll start the portrait again. As Woody's owners have requested I am colouring his muzzle lighter than it is in reference photograph 1 but as shown in their second photograph. I think the difference will show up better as more colour is added around this area. I have spent about 4 hours on this pencil pet portrait so far. I think I enjoy working on dogs the most as a pet portrait artist as their charactors shine through.
This is at 7 hours, here I start to put some background colours in, these areas show very different colours to just chocolate brown, there are hints of blue and maroon on this dog portrait
At about 10 hours work as an animal portrait artist on Woody's picture, he really is starting to look more real, up close you can see the pencil marks which look like directional fur, I have burnished already in some places to give him a more 3d appearance. I'm quite pleased with the progress so far.
Woody is now completed, I finished work on his neck area and then added lowlights to give his fur and features more depth. I'm pleased with the finished result and all that remains is to mount and frame him. In all I think this portrait will take about 15 hours after framing. View more dog portraits by pet portrait artist and animal portrait artist
Pencil Portraits from Photos 
