Pet Portraits and Wildlife Art

So things have moved on a little with Oscar's portrait and the ear is now starting to take shape. It's surprising how many colours make up any fur, although this is a liver and white spaniel I can see pinks, chocolates, blacks, even a touch of purple here and there and that is why it takes so long to produce any sort of art. Even graphite portraits contain hundreds of shades of grey, each of which must be added to ensure a realistic feel.

I'm now beginning to find out the pitfalls of this pastel paper, and although I love the ready made background shades, I'm finding it a little too rough to show fine pencil lines. I want to show individual hairs on he ears but the roughness means the fine lines are being lost and layering is giving a more smooth finish. This isn't wrong by any means but my fine detail type of work is maybe not so suited to this type of paper, but then again I may like the softer portrait it will produce so perhaps my style just needs to change a little. It is a much faster support to work on I find which I cannot explain but the speed with which the portrait is shaping up is fantastic. Anyway, I've now gotten hold of the leonberger photo and I can't wait to start it so I'll need to crack the whip and get on with Oscar.