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I am really happy with how this portrait turned out, what a cutie!

Ok, where were we?

I added some more detail to his face and some texture to the fur on his body. I also extended his back end a little bit.

I normally don’t like backgrounds in my work, but Lucky is going to look pretty silly curled up on blank space so I’ll need to at least suggest a solid surface beneath him. I decided to go with a mere suggestion of the couch, in order to let the dog be the main focus.

The last step will be to finalize some detail to the ears, fine strokes of fur to the body and face, and add whiskers.

I decided to erase the black outlines and go for a more realistic look as opposed to a stylized illustration. I added more white, pink, and magenta to each of the individual petals until all were rendered to my liking.

I am very happy with the finished product…

To continue on my flower kick, I pulled out this photo of a tulip magnolia Eric took at Duke Gardens back in the spring. I asked him to take a few different shots of this branch specifically so I could paint it at a later date.

Because I am using blue paper and not black, I am much more careful in the vine charcoal sketching stage… especially since I plan to leave the background alone. Most of the charcoal can be erased, but it’s hard to get rid of a huge area if I mess up.

So far I’ve added the white and pink shades and colored in the branch, but I still have quite a bit of the black outline showing. I need to decide if I want to erase the black edges or emphasize them, depending on the direction I want to go with this painting.

After I added all the white patches, I filled in the rest of the body and head with a reddish-brown pastel.

As the face is the most important component of a portrait, I started adding detail there first. The original nose placement made the face too long, so I moved it up some. I had the right eye in the correct place, but needed to move the the left eye down.

I’ve got a good bit of detail done in the face, but after looking at my reference photo I can see that I need to extend his body in the back a little bit. I also want to work on making his tucked front leg a little more convincing before I start adding the final details.

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.

I started out my painting session today by further refining the flowers, adding more shading to the leaves, and more detail to the colorful centers. Unfortunately I only have two shades of purple, so I had to layer pink and white in areas to give the painting enough color variation.

I ultimately decided to add a stem because the flowers looked a little strange just floating in space. The finished product…

I haven’t done a flower portrait in a while, but I always have a bunch of reference material ready when the urge strikes. These shooting stars were found all along the Riverside Walk trail in Zion National Park when we visited in May.

I always start out with a soft charcoal drawing to help with composition and placement. You can faintly see my drawing below…

Next I filled in the purple petals, roughly adding some shading and highlights along the way.

After I get the petals where I want them, I began adding color to the middle portion of each flower.

I haven’t decided if I want to include the stem or the bud in the lower right corner yet. I’m going to leave it for now and ponder my options tomorrow afternoon.

I hand-delivered Ella to Christina in North Raleigh this morning.

For transport and storage, I sandwiched the painting between a sturdy piece of cardboard after I covered the pastel with a sheet of tracing paper to prevent smudging. I wanted her to be able to keep the painting safe until she was ready to frame it.

I let her know how to handle the painting, but from now on I am going to include a little “how to take care of me” sticker when I deliver my commissioned work. I never use fixative, but my pieces are blended fairly well so there isn’t a lot of chalk sitting on top. Pastel paintings can smudge unlike acrylic or oil paintings, so when you frame a pastel it has to go behind glass with a spacer or mat separating it from the glazing.

I’m so excited, my first official commissioned work!