Pet Portraits and Wildlife Art

After receiving a comment from Jane about my techniques I realised that although I post my updates regularly to show progress I don't actually go into the detail of how I work most of the time. Although I've already shown some work on the leopard portrait, I still repeat the same routine and exercises all over the portrait area by area so although this post is not quite from the beginning it will show how I work with coloured pencils from start to finish.You can click on the image above to enlarge it to see in more detail how I work.

I spend a long time drawing the portrait out in graphite, I do not do rough sketches first I simply work on the portrait straight away and I will start again if I go wrong. I am not at all anatomically trained so I cannot rely on my own knowledge about how an animal's structure or body shape are in real life, I simply draw what I see. I begin with the face and eyes working outwards, exactly the same as I do when I begin to use colour. I have never documented this stage before because usually the pencil strokes are so light I couldn't photograph them but I also think people just want to see what likeness I achieve or the finished portrait. The light strokes also allow me to erase and re-draw until I am happy with the details. I really think I am not of an artist's mind either as I cannot see things which are not there, I can only use the information I am given and approach each portrait almost as a plan, colours and shapes of those colours are all I can use to get everything into proportion (I have even used rulers before now to get them correct). The image above has been darkened to show up the graphite pencil marks and on the back of the leopard you can see the shapes I have drawn representing the black/brown markings (like I said it does look like painting by numbers), this is how I draw the outline of everything, I am constantly thinking 'that almost lines up with the next bit of black, that curves back around there to touch that bit' and so on. Once I am happy with the outline and shapes I begin with the colours, again looking at the back area you can see I have used a pale to mid brown for the undercoating, I always put the colour on in the direction of the fur, and at this point I can still see the graphite guidelines underneath. You will see I also used this technique on the head but using a much paler undercoat as the fur there was lighter. I then build up layers from palest to darkest until the graphite is covered but also until I achieve the correct depth of colour, I can still go back with a white pencil to lighten anything so long as I don't use too many layers, when this happens layers of colour start to peel off so each layer is as light and delicate as the undercoat you can see.

Anyway here is the portrait so far without any enhancements to show up the graphite.

Back to other news, I had my first aid course today and had to leave poor Willow home alone (well with Gypsy anyway) and expected to return to a sofa torn to pieces and puddles and disasters, but I am so glad to report my girl was very good, she and Gypsy must have dozed on the sofa and were very well behaved, I'm quite impressed!

Anyway, just thought I'd add a pic of one of my fish tanks to help you pass some time this lovely Wednesday evening!!!