For my next dog portrait, I am working on our friend’s adorable chihuahua, Lucky. He’s about seven pounds of pure love.

Eric took this photo of him on the arm of their couch the first time we went to visit them after they moved to Jacksonville.

Once I have the correct outline using soft vine charcoal, I started adding white. At this point, I am just trying to get the placement of his head, legs and tail correct.

To paint large areas like this I lightly fill in the area with pastel and then blend (with my fingers) into the paper. For spots of pure white I may have to go over the area a few times, especially since I am using black paper. I’ve tried other methods of blending (brushes, tortillons, etc) but nothing seems to work as well as my hands.

He’s already starting to look pretty realistic! Tomorrow I will continue painting with brown pastels and start working on his face and ears.