Joy

COLOUR PENCILPASTEL

Pencils: my precious FC Polychromos and Luminance, plus my splendiferous new PanPastels
Support: Pastelmat, white, 210x297mm A4
Reference: Unsplash
Coffee: Columbian Extra Dark, freshly ground

Well. The moment has arrived. Not the picture of my sister's Great Dane that some may recall I have mentioned, but nevertheless a little creature that has four legs, fur, a tail and a woof. A dog I believe is the correct term, so close enough. I cannot tell you more than that, such is my ignorance of dog breeds.... a Pug perhaps? Whatever... his head is cozy and warm and he is my first dog.

Now I know we are accustomed to the canine brilliance of many fabulous artists in the group, but this fur lark is tough. It seems to have a life of it's own and should be banned. Dog owners requesting artist's draw their dogs should probably remove any confounding whiskers before taking reference photos too

And so I bring to you my version of this lovely little fellow, modelling the very latest in must have fashion from the dogwalk.

All in all, this joint collaboration with the wee fellow went ok, albeit slower than I would have liked due to lack of drawing time.

Reference pic chosen, Frisket film applied without wrapping myself in it. Life is good. My new PanPastels whacked down for the background, I now think I could apply make up professionally for Vogue magazine.

Then on with the underpainting, a few gratuitous sprays and whiffs of fixative, which may not really have been needed after all, and on to my quite delicious Polychromos which surprisingly behaved for me quite nicely. Some wonderful white Luminance sprinkled liberally on top and simmer gently for an eternity, et voila, one clearly deliriously delighted doggy.

I literally take my yellow bobble hat off to those of you who draw a lot of dogs by the way. Respect!