New Tutorial :)

How to draw wiry, coarse fur in pastels?

My recent voice over on YouTube covers how I tackled this Border Terrier portrait. Also packed with tips and techniques :).

Fingers crossed – My Patreon channel should be live on Monday 1st February! 😀

Zara's Pet Portraits & Wildlife Art

20 hours ago

When drawing any foliage, it's best to have at least 3 values. A highlight, midtone and shadow but I usually like to use at least 6 or 7 to enhance the level of depth. It's also important to notice whether the colours are warm or cool as this can also aid the level of realism. Whether more of a warmer yellow ochre tint or cooler blue within the greens are required which will also help with perspective.

For example, the treeline in the background has a cooler bluer tint to the lighter shades but the grass in the foreground is far warmer with more yellower tints. This helps to push the background further away and bring the foreground closer. Using the same colours all over can make the artwork feel more flat and 2D.
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12" x 16" pastel drawing ...

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Zara's Pet Portraits & Wildlife Art

2 days ago

Something that adds a huge amount of depth to any painting or drawing is to use a range of highlight values for these top details. If these brush strokes were all the same brightness, then they all look to similar and therefore flatter.

For this section, I add just a little more titanium white to the existing mixture but it's enough to give more natural variation.
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Reference photo: Birger Strahl on Unsplash ...

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Zara's Pet Portraits & Wildlife Art

3 days ago

My current graphite drawing requires an adjustment of pencil technique. I love adding lots of detail to my art, but sometimes it's more about capturing the impression of detail.

As this fur is wet, adding in lots of individual details for fur would make the animal look dry. If the fur was longer, for an otter for example, the fur would clump together and separate but given Seals have much shorter fur, that is not able to happen in the same way. Incorporating more softening and blending techniques with the graphite pencils is enhancing the realism rather than trying to force details we wouldn't naturally be able to see.
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Reference photo: Keith Luke on Unsplash ...

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