Pippa's Portrait

This is a freshly finished dog portrait of a very special character called Pippa.  Hope you enjoy the progress…

The finished portrait 12″x18″ pastel on velour

My initial line drawing which I did on plain cartridge paper transferred onto the sandy velour.

I’ve blocked in the background from furtherest away to foreground so that colours build up on top of each other.  The dog’s colours and reflections will use a similar palette to the background as her shine reflects the colours around her.

Working my way downwards.  I use a black Faber Castell stick for really dark black areas.  I then work forward in tone and the highlights go on last.

I use Unison soft pastels for most of my work but have a selection of other tools to hand, one being pastel pencils.  The dark colours are useful as are the light colours for dragging my bigger marks made by the soft pastels into much finer lines.  Pastel pencils don’t really work that well on their own for me, the softer pastels have the strength of colour. But I can use them to shape and work smaller hairs or get a sharp edge cleaned up.

Coming down the body and following the grain and flow of the fur.  The tail and back legs must come time about with the areas of grass so that they all overlap in the correct way.

Starting to make more sense now as I block in the foreground area.  Working in this top to bottom way can be strange as you don’t have all the colours there to balance it out.  But I quite like it as it starts to come together and I do go back over and tweak colours across the whole painting.  I keep the colours I’m using out in front of me too so that the shades through the painting are flowing.

Coming forward in the grass building it up in layers. I don’t get too concerned about painting every blade exactly how it is.  I try to be a little looser in the surroundings so that the detail in the portrait subject really stands out.

I’m creating the shadow area around Pippa so that the effect of the light will finally make sense and make her look grounded.  I use a plum purple and deep rich green in the shadow grass. This gives a warm shadow look.  If I wanted a cool shadow I’d use a dusky blueish purple instead of plum to cool it down.

The last bits of foreground and when the grass overlaps the front paws she will look a part of the scene.

Hope you enjoyed Pippa, I’m busy working on illustrations for a children’s book which I’ll do a blog on very soon!  Please subscribe at the side for more…