‘Meet Ronnie’

Fresh off the easel last week was Ronnie the German Shepherd. This portrait required a lot of variation in pencil details to capture all the textures within his fur. I had to start with rich base layers to make sure I captured his beautiful warm colouring within his fur. I used PanPastels for his base layers and that worked really well for the colours I was looking to recreate. 

I like to keep clients updated with progress photographs so they can see their portraits develop. I have always done this because if I was having any of my pets painted/drawn I would love to see the progression.

I had a beautiful photograph to work from for his portrait so I was keen to add all of the tiny detail in his portrait.

The difference in textures within his ears to the fur on the side of his face. It was all in varying the pencil strokes, the pressure of the pencils while really focusing on the fur direction. 

 

 

Building up those layers gradually. When working on dense, thicker fur like German Shepherd coat a lot of subtle layers are crucial in replicating this fur texture. The fur direction is not random. It follows the muscular and skeletal structure under the skin. If we don’t follow the fur direction accurately we will ultimately change what the subject looks like in our finished portrait.

German Shepherds given these textures, colours and their expression make this one of my favourite breeds to capture.