Short white hair, can it get any harder!! This is the kind of challenge I really enjoy. Drawing Diamond was going to be fun.
I decided to put a bit of a backdrop to set off her whites but I didn't want to do too much. It is so easy to make a black and white mess. I usually start by playing around a bit with different parts of the picture to get a feel for where I am going. For Diamond, I found the secret was to first of all get over the 'white thing'. When dealing with white, no matter what, there will always be a slight degree of shading. Once that was settled things really began to fall into place. Yes, there will be white but only on her forehead and nose area to really develop the focus on her face.
The second secret was to use both a cloth and tortillion to burnish my pencil work; this really makes her coat sleek and lifelike and gives many levels of subtle shading. I am very pleased with the results and anxious to finish her up. Things are really starting to come together eh?
2 comments:
Oh these are so cute. Drawing pets seems to be the way to go. I did one painting of my cat and had it at the Mikkelson show in the summer and that was the one I got asked about the most and if I did pet portraits. I better hone up on my cat and dog painting skills.
Thank you Florence. Drawing animals is a lot of fun and I must admit people are very pleased with the results which is also very satisfying.
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