This is my latest commission, a beautiful rescue Doberman called Megan.
I have used Fisher 400 sanded paper as the support. For the background I used Ashby soft pastel sticks in blues greys and black. For the dog I used a mixture of Derwent and Faber Castell Pit pastel pencils. My darkest dark was Derwent Dark Indigo (not black), and the highlights were done using Derwent light indigo with Pitt violet and white, with various yellows ochres and browns for the tan areas on her face and her eye.
First stage: After roughly completing the background I then start to block in the largest area of darks and to introduce some violet and lighter blue to the highlights.
Stage 2: I have completed the eye and the nose and have finished roughly blocking in the under-layers of all the colours.
Stage 3: I have finished the face and working my way down the body, filling in details and working on bringing the highlights to life. I am still using the same colours. Finally completing the whole dog and tweaking any areas that need definition and last of all adding the whiskers.
The finished painting.
Agh, gorgeous! Interesting to see how you achieved the highlights in the dark coat.
ReplyDeleteWOW! The highlights are awesome. It was amazing watching it transform from a flat picture to almost 3D. I love the clouded blue background as well. A very tastefull compliment to the subject.
ReplyDeleteI know I replied to you, but it seems to have vanished into cyber-space.
ReplyDeleteThanks Pauline and Laurisa, I enjoy doing short haired black dogs with shiny coats, the highlights are fun to do with all the different colours which can be introduced.
Backgrounds in pastel are much easier to do than backgrounds using coloured pencils, much quicker too!
Thanks for showing the WIP Bev, it is so interesting to see a painting develop. The pose of the dog is so appealing,and I just love that background. The highligts and colours in the coat are just beautiful.
ReplyDeleteCheers
Lesley
Stunning portrait Bev
ReplyDeleteIts so difficult choosing between pastels and cps isn't it? I love the finer details that can be achieved with cps but pastels are so much faster !
She is magnificent!
ReplyDeleteThanks so much everyone,
ReplyDeleteLesley, makes such a difference when you have a good ref photo to work from and this one was excellent....wish they were all as good.
Sue, I go through phases where I do everything in cp and then swap over to pastels, but I have made a decision now that all my animal commissions will be in pastels, cp just takes way too long to do.
Thank you for looking in Liz.
Well, back to my large cp for the UKCPS exhibition, must say I am beginning to wish I done something a little smaller.
Hi
ReplyDeleteThe portrait is looking so smooth and beautiful.