In this post I write about my process creating a pet portrait commission of 'Gryffin & Scooter', two lovely Dachshund's. Hope you enjoy!
I was contacted by the owner of Gryffin and Scooter to draw them as a surprise for her partner. She told me that she hadn't thought about getting a portrait done before but when she saw my previous drawing of Dolly the dachshund, she wanted to reach out to get one of her own.
"It is absolutely AMAZING! I can hardly believe the expertise and how you captured their personality in their eyes! I cannot say THANK YOU enough. I have never taken a leap like this before and I’m so happy that I did 😁😁😁😁"
- Nancy
FINDING THE PERFECT REFERENCE PHOTOS
The first step was to find the perfect reference photos.
She sent me many lovely photos of both dogs to choose from and I made a range of compositions to see how they'd both fit best on the page. We messaged back and forth about this until we found the best layout.
With Gryffin's ears being much wider than Scooter's, I ended up extending the page size by a few inches so the drawing would look balanced - this was definitely the right decision for this piece.
These were the 2 photos we both agreed on for the drawing:
And this was the layout I worked from:
THE DRAWING PROCESS
DRAWING GRYFFIN
1 . Like with any drawing I do I started with the eyes. There are 3 main parts to the eye: the pupil (black centre), the iris (the coloured ring) and the sclera (the white). For dogs, the pupil and iris are both larger than a human's which is why you don't see as much white in their eye's (unless they look to the side). I love this about animal eyes because it gives a larger dark surface to draw details, textures and reflections.
When starting the eyes, I use a dark grey pencil to map out any shapes I see and gradually build up on colour; shading from darkest to lightest.
2 . Next was the nose. I usually approach drawing a nose by drawing in the nostrils with black straight onto the paper so it stands out more. I do this first because the rest of the nose has a white pencil base which I build colour onto so I can scratch away any highlights afterwards. The reason I don't add the white layer under the nostril is because it would dilute the black and it wouldn't be as intense.
I gradually build up from lightest to darkest across the rest of the nose and then use a slice tool (ceramic scalpel) to scratch away the coloured pencil to get the texture and highlights of a dog's nose.
3 . For the ears and fur I use a similar technique to the nose where I put a white base layer down and build up the colours from light to dark. Instead of using a circular motion to achieve a smooth texture, I create small strokes to give the effect of fur layers.
4 . Here you can see the slice tool which I use to scratch away the layers of pencil. This technique makes drawing fur much easier as it allows you to add fine highlights and details on top of a dark base. It saves so much time!
5 . Just before I finished Gryffin's face, I was asked if I could add his little tongue sticking out as this is a characteristic he usually has. I just thought it was a cute element to mention and shows how I can adapt photos to fit your specification.
6 . All that was left was to draw his upper body. I find this can be a challenging area as there are usually folds and varied fur lengths but I was really pleased with how it turned out in this portrait.
DRAWING SCOOTER
1 . As you can see above, the reference photo of Scooter was much clearer than Gryffin's; this made it easier to create a more realistic finish to his eyes.
2 . Next I worked on his nose and used the same techniques as I did for Gryffin's. He has a lot more texture in the photo so there was more details to scratch away with the slice tool. Once I'd done this, I went over the scratched areas with a white pencil; this makes them appear a bit more subtle and blend as part of the nose.
3 . Both dog's ears were similar to draw in that I used small strokes to create the effect off fur. The only difference being Scooter's ears having much more pure black areas due to his fur colour and the shadows in the photo. What I do in this case is decide whether there are areas that could be lightened so it isn't too harsh and take my time with blending from very light to very dark in such a small space.
4 . Scooter has a few orange patches which appear in his black fur, particularly around his eye and nose. I mapped out the areas where the orange would be using small strokes and then used the darker colours to shape these areas so they look natural.
5 . When drawing black fur you first need to decide if the fur looks warm or cold - this will help you decide whether to use warm or cold greys or use a mixture of both.
Another colour group you will most likely be using for black fur is blues. If you look closely you should be able to see some light and dark blues throughout the fur. This is because when the light hits the fur, it has a bluey hue to it rather than white.
Last colour of course is black; this is best used at the end because once you've added black it's difficult to dial back if you use it too much. If this happens then the areas which should be more intense won't be.
6 . In comparison to Gryffin's fur on his upper body, Scooter's fur texture looks more smooth and less detailed. To achieve this I built up a smooth, well blended base using the greys, blues and black (where necessary). Once I was happy with the base, I used a sharp, black pencil with a harder lead (ideally the Faber-Castell black) and added fine fur strokes to add some texture.
AND HERE'S THE FINISHED RESULT...
For size reference here's me holding the drawing.
The drawing size she ordered was 9" x 12" which I extended to 9" x 14" to best suit the layout. I try leave extra space around the drawing to make it easier for mounting and framing.
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