Dog in coloured pencil, step by step

 This much loved dog died very recently, and I was happy to have done this coloured pencil artwork (from a photo from when she was a young dog) for the owner to remember her by. 

The artwork was small, around A4 in size. For dark coloured animals it is necessary to use an 'underpainting' technique, which helps get rid of the whiteness of the paper, and allows the darkest areas to be much richer and more intense. After a detailed line drawing, I like to start at the eyes and work outwards from there. 

The background is an out of focus hedge - I love the blobby patterns this creates. 

Grass is always a challenge and is quite labour intensive. This time I put in some of the paler stems first then worked around them. 

I then put in swathes of darker grasses, with mid tones on top.

The whole artwork took around 30 hours. I use Caran d'Ache Prismalo 1, and a manual sharpener. I used Bristol Board for the smooth surface.

For info on workshops (in studio and on Zoom) please email julie@juliedouglas.co.uk