After completing Tia's commission, one of my recent works as a dog portrait artist you can see here, I am getting straight on with Mickey the spaniel. So far I have used a very limited pallette of 4 colours, I will need to go back to add lowlights as Mickey's fur in his reference image is very very dark but shiny. I have not used any white or black yet and try to use these in very limited quantities as an animal portrait artist as no animal is truly black
Mickey's owner has emailed with the following comments 'We have both seen the image of Mickey, words cannot describe our delight the picture looks fantastic....At this rate I am sure that we will be commissioning further portraits as you have really done our dog proud, look forward to seeing the end product.'
I have added more shading to the head area as well as using a white pencil to bring out the shine of the coat. I have then made my way downwards over the chest area and forelegs, so far I have only used two colours for Mickey's chest, french grey and chinese white but am quite pleased with the shading this has provided. Sometimes it is not necessary to use a huge amount of colours on a portrait as too many colours can become too busy, I have completed a portrait using no more than half a dozen colours before now as light layering can create a very realistic effect. I have remembered to take snaps of work in progress more often than is usual and intermittent stages are shown on my blog. Mickey's owners have been watching my blog and left these comments 'Hi Karie, Seen the blog site showing intermittent images of Mickey he is looking great you are doing him true justice, it appears that his character and temperament has come across to you. Keep up the good work we are truly excited at continuing to watch the blog site regularly in order to watch you bring our photo of Mickey to life.'
I have continued working on Mickey's portrait continuing down his back. I have never seen a spaniel with such a glossy coat before, I used only three colours for this section so far, chocolate for the main aea with bistre for the highlights and I hvae used burnt umber to add depth. I think the sheen really does show up so I'm pleased with my progress today.
The tail area of Mickey's portrait was very difficult to discern from the dark floor tiles, I made a guess however I got it completely wrong, Mickey's tail sat very close to his body, was short and quite thick, how much more wrong could I get it!!!! Back to the drawing board
Unfortunately where I erased Mickey's tail a little too much I have now damaged his portrait, luckily Mickey's owners are kind enough to wait whilst I start again. I am more than a little annoyed that I managed to damage it and have never had it happen before luckily. This may well be one of my longest works in progress!! So near and yet so far.
And so I start again, this time I have bought a new set of Derwent pencils, a larger set, which surprisingly do not contain many of the same shades. I put down an entire layer of brown to show shape so I can see everything is in place
I also begin to add grass as it would be impossible to add grass after the brown colours had been used as they are too dark to colour over.
I use a white pencil to go over areas of highlights, this produces a real sheen to Mickey's coat in places.
Almost there, at this point I was undecided as to whether or not to add further grass so I contacted Mickey's owners for their opinion, they suggested adding more grass as Mickey's tummy was so very white.... so I did...
And they were very right, the additional grass definitely added to picture and they are both very pleased with this portrait.
Just to confirm the portrait was delivered by 09:00am this morning, well what can we say "Its brilliant " its like Mickey is here with us , the only question I do have is that the portrait is not signed by you, if any you deserve the credit for such a fantastic piece of art.
By having your signature on the portrait will only encourage friends and family to follow suit when they wish to have a portrait of their pet done, you are a very talented artist who will thrive.
Pencil Portraits from Photos Dog Paintings by dog portrait artist and animal portrait artist Karie-Ann Cooper
