DEMONSTRATIONFor this demonstration I have chosen
to do a close-up portrait of a beautiful
Australian Shepherd dog which I
photographed some time ago at a dog
show. This Blue Merle coloured dog
has a unique “painted” coat pattern and
intelligent golden eyes, so I needed to
decide what colour of the paper would
be better to use. I love to use dark
or strong colours for my art, which
are base colours of the subject. For
this portrait I could have used a grey
colour which is the base colour for
the blue-ish grey fur, but as I wanted
the eyes and golden “cheeks” to be
a focal point, I decided to use Raw
Sienna Art Spectrum ColorFix paper.
STEP ONE
I cropped the photograph, and then
drew the dog on plain white paper
using a grid (or free hand). All changes
and adjustments should be made at
this stage, so I don’t have to worry
about it later during the colour stage,
as erasing could be difficult then ( but
not impossible). When I was happy
with the composition, I transferred
the drawing to 8”x10” Raw Sienna
ColorFix paper using yellow artist’s
transfer paper ( I often use white
transfer paper on dark backgrounds,
but here I felt yellow would be better).STEP TWO
I tapped lightly over the whole drawing
with a kneaded eraser, so the lines
were still visible, but not dominant –
otherwise they would show through
layers of the coloured pencils. Then
I went all over it again with coloured
pencils creating like a “colour map”
for future layouts. I used Black, White,
Cloud Blue, Warm Grey 10%, 70%,
90%, Cool Grey 30%, 50%, Terra
Cotta, Dark Umber and Light Umber.STEP THREE
I started doing the eyes first – just
because I like my subject to look
“alive” from the beginning and it makes
the whole process more enjoyable.
Then I began to lay out base colours,
starting from the top and using light
linear strokes in the direction of hairgrowth, following the coat’s pattern,
leaving the ”golden” patches free
of colour at this stage. For eyes I
used Terra Cotta, Pumpkin Orange,
Yellowed Orange, Jasmine, Cream,
Black and Imperial Violet. For hair:
White, Cloud Blue, Cool Grey 30%,
70%, 90%, Jade Green, Beige, Dark
Brown, Terra Cotta and Black.STEP FOUR
I finished with the base layout on the
neck using White, Cloud Blue, Beige,
Cool Grey 30%, and Warm Grey 10%.
Then I started doing the cheeks and
eyebrows using Cream and Beige for
the lightest areas, Yellowed Orange a
nd Pumpkin Orange for the midtones,
and Terra Cotta, Burnt Ochre and
Dark Brown for the darkest parts,
allowing the colour of the paper to
look through. After that I decided to
take off some of the pencil with the
kneaded eraser to allow even more
of the colour of the paper to be visible
in the golden patches - for overall
warmth and glow. Then I did the nose,
using circular strokes and allowing
the texture of the paper to help me.