IsHe - A Pet Portrait

Got back to Desert Hot Springs on Thursday.
I spent yesterday unpacking the van, doing laundry, and catching up on some of my favorite tv shows like THE VOICE and THE GOOD DOCTOR.

Today it was time to get back to work so I began a pet portrait of my friend, Gary's dog whose name is "IsHe."  This is pronounced like "Izzy" but is spelled this way I've HEARD because Gary rescued him as a puppy in Mexico and for a while wasn't sure "Is he gonna make it or not?" 

Ishe is a cool dog, laid back and friendly. I'm excited to do his portrait.

Here is the original I'm working from.

I am working mainly with colored pencils on pastelmat.

When I do a colored pencil drawing 

it takes several days.

First choose the background paper.

I've decided to use white pastelmat for Ishe,

adding a green and brown background 

with panpastels, later down the road.

Next I do the drawing.

I don't put in a lot of detail.

Just the basic outline 

and the directional strokes,

paying close attention to the eyes

and to the nose.

Next I work on the eyes.

This is my favorite part.

The eyes are the mirrors of the soul,

and in an animal,

can be the difference between

bringing it alive

or not.

Once the eyes are finished,

and sometimes after only one eye is finished,

 I begin doing what I call "colormapping."

This is using extremely light pressure,

to "map" where the various colors will go.

People think a white dog is white

and a black dog is black.

However, that is far from the truth.

Take Ishe, for instance.

If you look closely,

there is a LOT of greens and blues

and apricots in his coat.

His eyes are reflecting greens,

oranges, and reds,

perhaps from the field he was standing in.

It's a very slow process of layering,

and takes many hours, 

many days,

which is why I charge $150 for a portrait.

Of course, I could whip out something quick,

and actually have been thinking about doing that

for the future so people will have a choice.

I'd love to do quick rainbow wash portraits.

But for now,

I'm enjoying doing photorealistic work.

Stay tuned to see IsHe's final portrait in a few days.

Love,

Annie