My first Christmas commissioned piece has been gifted a little early so I’m sharing these three scamps with you. This is Ben, Blossom and Murphy.
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The Westies Pastel on velour 12″x18″ |
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The photo reference I worked from. I went to photograph the left and right dogs but Blossom in the middle is sadly no longer so I used some reference the client had of her. |
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I’ve sketched this whole composition which I pieced together first on Photoshop out on normal cartridge paper first. Then I cover the back of this and transfer it onto the velour. |
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Going for a neutral gradient in the background. I want it to be warm but provide a good contrast for the light coats. |
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Using Unison pastels. I love their light range and use all these warm and cool tones to create some depth to the fur. I save white or Unison Grey 27 as the brightest highlights. |
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This shows some of the colours I use in the under layer to create the flow of the fur. |
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Blossom’s picture is tricky as I’m working from the light in the others to try and match her into the composition. |
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I often get asked how I get small detail with big Unison sticks. This shows how one has worn down leaving me with a nice sharp edge to use. My crumbs and bits and pieces are so useful! |
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Using Faber Castel pencils for the very small details. |
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All finished and in their frame. Beautiful framing from Art & Home Holywood. Framed with a double mount and spacers. |
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Lovely work Emma!
Can you tell me what colors you used in the background? The neutral colors seem critical to setting off the white of the dogs fur. Thank you!
Hi Kay, sorry for the slow reply I've been away from my desk for a few days over Christmas. I build up a background like this in thin layers. I like using Dark 14 as my dark base which I'll put in the darkest areas. The more depth the better as it all shows through. Something warm like BE14 and touches of RE9 along with touches of Grey8 add a mixture of tone and depth. Light films gently blended of white or Grey 27 putting more where I want it to lighten most. This blends the whole thing together but I can still see hints of all the colours on the velour fibres which I feel gives it a lovely effect. Hope that is helpful. I don't think it would have to be these colours exactly, just a range of tones and binded together with the lighter shades on top. The colours I mentioned are all in the Unison Animal set which you can see here http://emmacolbertart.blogspot.co.uk/search?updated-max=2014-12-21T06:31:00-08:00&max-results=7. You could substitute for similar shades you have and try it 🙂
Thank you so much Emma. I will give these colors a try!