Maizy - Border Collie

I have just completed this portrait of Maizy.  Her owner had the winning bid in a fund raising auction held by Phoenix Dog Rescue. The item was for a portrait of the winners pet. I got some lovely ref photos of Maizy and it was a pleasure to produce this picture.

Size: 10" x 8"

Medium Pastels: Ashby sticks and Derwent and Faber Castell Pitt pastel pencils.

Support: Fisher 400 sanded paper.

Doberman in Pastels

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.