Ulustration Friday post: theme is "new"

This illustration was created in Photoshop, using some scanned images of old woodcuts that I cleaned up and rearranged with my own little "egg" inspiration. Enjoy!

Pencil drawing of a Corgi

The breeder I got my German Shepherd from, also breeds Corgis. Since seeing them at her house, I seem to be seeing them everywhere. I decided to draw one. So, that's story!

 It was difficult getting the ears right and even, but I'm happy with this final art. Pencil on Bristol Board

Step 14 final step, painting is finished!

I added the red glazes and this was taken outside in the shade on a sunny day. I also signed the painting. I don't do that until I am totally finished. I am thrilled with how this came out. Now it just has to dry for several more weeks before I can ship it. I hope you enjoyed watching my process. Let me know if you have any questions!

Step 13

I fixed her tag. Much happier. Worked on her belly, adding a nice roundness to it. Made her right foot a bit smaller and left foot a bit larger. added more detail in the grass. Now I start adding some glazes. I thin down my oil paint with a mixture of stand oil, damar varnish and mineral spirits. I only add a touch of color and thin it way down. You can see I've added a bit of yellow and greens to her coat to make it blend well with the grass. Later, I'll add a bit of red the same way. I also lightened up the inside of her ears. Almost there!

Step 12

Legs in front are coming together. I added some flowers to the grass. Her tummy is looking too flat. I'll have to adjust that! Still adding more and more layers to her coat.

Step 11

I have started adding more dark thin strokes that will go under her fur. It's a brindle coat with all sorts of browns and siennas and not really easy to portray. I'll get it slowly to look the way I want. I also added more grass in front of her and beside her. Painting grass is really fun. I often paint with both hands so it looks more irregular. I still haven't got the tummy and back leg and foot to look how I want it. Bulldogs love to lie down with their back legs out straight. It doesn't look too comfortable! Also added more highlights.

Step 10

I added more dark colors to mark the shadows recede. I'm not crazy with how the tag looks. It's too thick. I went to the pet store and took a couple of snapshots for reference. Tooth is all gone! Mouth more refined.

Step 8

I go over the darker areas with small strokes of lighter colors to create a nice curve where her many folds of skin are. The body gets some attention and I define the belly folds. There are so many! LOL!! I think I can see a tooth in the photo (it's good to check with the owner because it ended up just being her gums, so I took it out later). More detail on the tongue.

Step 7

I think the shadows need to be deepened on her forehead so I also add some browns and sienna. I've added a bit more to her fur areas for shadows that will also be built up over layers. Her tongue has some blue brown added to deepen the shadow.

Step 5

I get leery of all that brown in the background and wonder if I will ever be able to fill it with grass, so I squeezed out some yellow, black and several greens and blues and go to town. Some people don't realize that a nice lemon yellow and black makes a beautiful set of greens. Mix yellows and blues and you get many many more. I also include some blues and blacks in the grass to indicate shadows behind the grass. It's far from being done, but that brown is not a solid block any more. All of her wrinkles on her forehead and nose are also blown out to white in my reference photo because it was taken in the bright sunshine. So I have to try and create what they really look like. Lots of back and forth on these! Then I realized she had a spot of brown on the top of her head from another photo. Might as well indicate that too! Added some more dark blue pink grays inside her mouth.

Step 3, lips, tongue nose pink!

Next steps were to mix up some nice pinks with alizarin crimson, some white and blue. Dragging the gray of the pencil around with a bit of turp, helps to put the lines I drew into a bit of gray that I can use for guides and add to the under layer. I also went in with some more whites over the grays and pinks. The owner wanted me to add a collar and a heart shaped tag that wasn't on the original photo either. Happy to comply! More reference needed.

Step by Step to Paint an English Bulldog

I received a commission to paint a beautiful English Bulldog about 6 weeks ago. I've been really busy ever since. I've been wanting to post some of my steps so I'm doing it now!

It was to be in oil paint so my first step was to collect as much reference material on her as possible, and find other reference on specific parts like bulldog eyes, which were blown out in the photo. You find something to work with in all cases. So I had about 8 photos to work with. I started with a quick pencil sketch on the canvas. It ended up being too far to the right, so I carefully erased and redrew my sketch. This is what I started with.

Close-ups of my Boston Terrier

Boston Terrier Dog finished

Finally finished my first Boston Terrier. I'm very happy with the way he came out. I think I may be brave enough now to try my German Shepherd, Cleopatra. She has tons of black in her coat. This was a good learning experience.

Boston Terrier 3

My little boston Terrier is coming along. I've started to define the edges of his skull and ears as well as the many foldes under his chin. I'm increasing the number of layer colors where his fur is black, made up of indigo blue, magenta, dark brown and orange. I will continue to work on the darks vs. lights. I've added a lot more to his nose and muzzle.

Boston Terrier 3

I've started to define the dark areas more with some indigo blue and magenta. I'll slowly work those areas darker, as I add more lights to show contrast. Not happy with the nose yet. Dog noses are really difficult things to draw in case you didn't know. This one already has four or five layers of color!

Boston Terrier 2

Now I have fixed the crooked eye, don't know if you can tell, and I might go back into it later. I started to add more color. I've used a soft blue gray and several other grays. Also added two different pinks to certain areas. Now I'm adding indigo blue where all the black are. I like to build up my blacks with dark blues and browns and dark reds if I can. The colors all shine through when you look at it closely and it makes a rich black.. I've also started to define all the edges of the face and neck. This is so much fun!

Boston Terrier colored pencil drawing

I've been wanting to draw some Boston Terriers for a long time and finally sat down to start one. This is the beginning. It's about 12 x 14 on Canson Drawing paper. Started with a pencil sketch and then added some white after I erased the pencil under those parts. Then I started the eyes and then went to the nose. I added some white, light grey and a light powder gray blue to the nose (can't think of the name of the color!). I think the left eye is off a bit, so I'll probably have to erase it a tiny bit and re-work it. You all know how I hate to erase!!! Where is that durn eraser! The paper is a bit less orange than the scan. Maybe work more on it this weekend. It is Mother's Day so I should be able to do whatever I want, right? 

Bassett Hound puppy 4 or 5 I forget!

I'm getting there. Added many, many layers of color but I'm still not done. Have to put it away for a few days and then take it back out.

Bassett Hound puppy 3

Step 3 is much like the last step, keep erasing and adding color. I'm drawing on some nice toned coffee with cream orangy kind of color (don't have the name but you get the idea!) Canson paper and it seems to be taking the color well except for the white. Again, I might switch to Prismacolor for the white. I've erased all the pencil from the top of the face and filled it in with the colored pencil. I try to watch which way the fur is falling and make my stokes copy that direction. If you haven't drawn on nice Canson paper because it seems expensive, take into account that you can fold it in half, tear it and then fold those 2 pieces in half and tear it again. Makes 4 good sized sheets for only a dollar or 2 each. It's really worth the investment for any drawings you intend to finish up and frame. It's archival so your drawings will last. Be sure to apply fixative so you don't get haze (called wax bloom) over your colors and they stay bright. And if you are drawing in shifts and have applied lots of layers, consider spraying with workable fixative which will help to lift the texture back up a bit so it has more tooth. Burnishing can press the color deeply into the paper and this helps if you want to go back into it with more color layers. Gives the pencil more bite into the paper. I'm also showing the colors I will be using. Browns, reds, orange, yellow, beigey tan, and of course white. Also a pink in there. May add some blues into the whites later.