Pet Portrait: Reagan the Beagle Mix
While I'm waiting for my next commission, I thought maybe I would draw one of my own dogs since they're starting to get a little jealous that most of the other dogs in the family have been immortalized in colored pencil. Plus they're freakishly adorable, which is definitely something you want in a subject, not that I'm biased or anything. Just look at that face!
Most of the pet portraits I've done have been of busts (basically collar up) so this was another thing I wanted to move away from to add variation to my portfolio, and will do my best to continue varying it up in the future.
Paper Used: Strathmore Premium Recycled Drawing Paper (400 Series) cut to 8x10".
Prismacolor Colored Pencils Used:
Dark Umber - PC947
Sienna Brown - PC945
Ginger Root - PC1084
Cream - PC914
Black - PC935
Cool Grey 90% - PC1067
Cool Grey 70% - PC1065
Cool Grey 50% - PC1063
Cool Grey 30% - PC1061
White - PC938
Hours Spent: 15 hours and 55 minutes
Things to Work On (Part 1):
Backgrounds. For this drawing I put some thought into maybe adding something to the background (in the original photo Reagan was laying on carpet in front of a wall), but I actually really liked the look of the stark white background. I just darkened her cast shadows to make sure she was weighed down and connected to the ground, which will hopefully be brought out even more by the black frame I am going to put around this one.
This decision works well with this layout and because she is a darker dog, but I may need to start considering adding something to the background when it comes to lighter dogs on lighter paper.
Things to Work On (Part 2):
Does anyone have any suggestions of how to photograph artwork? (I tried using a scanner, but this usually washes out a lot of the lighter stuff, if it is picked up at all). The problem I often have is that there is usually a shadow clearly visible on the paper (see the bottom left corner of this drawing). To photograph this drawing I was sitting with my back to the middle of a wall with two windows equally spaced on the wall, and the drawing was taped to a vertical surface parallel to the wall. Guess I will have to ask google, but I will still appreciate any suggestions because I do hope to make prints of some of my artwork at some point.
Until next time! Lauren H. Follow @BewareOfTrees