Bonnie

Bonnie

rabbit

rabbit

Lisa

Lisa
colour 8x10

Mrs Blore

Mrs Blore
graphite 8x10

Oakley

Oakley

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artbykarieann
I am a part-time pet portrait and wildlife artist living in the deep dark forest between the Royal Forest of Dean, Herefordshire and the Welsh border. A beautiful and inspiring place to live and create pet portraits and wildlife art.
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Wednesday 22 July 2009

German Shepherd Pet Portrait

Well as promised here is a step by step method I use for creating fur. Stage 1 above, just shows how I add guidelines to get everything in the right place, I used dove and medium grey to mark out the shadows, these may not be dark or light enough at the moment but as there are small gaps between the pencil strokes I can add lighter or darker colours as I see fit. 
Next I used persian grey to create more depth as I felt my initial shadows weren't dark enough, these pencil strokes just sit between the dove and medium grey.
Here I decided to add some highlights to ensure these are in place, for this I use pale peach, this colour rarely shows up on it's own but it will when surrounded by darker colours as I add them a bit later.
Again more highlights, this is light sand and is the perfect shade for the pale golden colour of Macey's fur. I put this all over the area I am working on, then some petrol grey to add bit more depth to the shadows, the good thing about pencils as opposed to paints is you can add colours out of order if needed rather than always from light to dark.
Next a little pale brown to boost the golden hue of the fur and finally I add white grey for even more highlights, I am able to be quite easy with the pencil strokes as very little layering is possible on drafting film so it will only really have any effect where there are gaps between previous pencil marks.
And just to show you how very pale this section is, here it is in the big scheme of things, eventully it will look more realistic as further areas around it are worked. I don't normally just concentrate on one area but this was a lot easier to show how I use colours to produce my portraits. I may well go back to this area and add further low or highlights as I see fit when I can see it in comparison to the areas next to it.
If you like my work please take the time to leave me a comment or become a follower (see bottom of page). If you would like to win a pet portrait of your dog, cat, horse or any other pet please see my new competition. It costs nothing to enter, all you require is internet access.
If you are interested in commissioning me please visit my pet portrait artist website or my wildlife artist website
Thanks for visiting!

6 comments:

Gwen Bell said...

As usual...another Masterpiece! Your work is nothing short of stunning. Thank you so much for showing how you create the fur. One of these days I'm going to have the patience to try pencil.

artbykarieann said...

thanks Gwen! I think I've found my niche now, I can't believe how much I've improved since last year alone! I would recommend pencils to anyone even though they are not considered a 'standard' art medium I think they are wonderful.

angelandspot said...

Beautiful! It is turning out nicely. I can't wait to see it when it is all finished. :)

Kathleen Coy said...

It's looking awesome, Karie! Thanks for showing us your technique, very interesting.

Gillian McMurray said...

Thank you so much for the tutorial. I always like to see how people produce areas in animal art. That way I get lots of tips :o)

Jennie Norris said...

Wow, this is looking amazing!! Can't wait to see the finished piece. You are an amazing artist : )

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