A few pet portraits

I continue learning how to work with coloured pencils and after starting with portraits of people, I decided to try my hand at a few pets. 

The first one is Diesel, my daughter’s Boxer. He’s very lively and has the most engaging personality. He loves taking over the sofa.

Diesel - pencil crayons in an Epsilon sketchbook. 

I’m using Caran d’ache Luminance pencils. They’re soft and buttery and have wonderfully intense colours. I also have a few Faber Castell Polychromos pencils. These are a little harder which makes them good for fine details. 

When I visited my son, Warren last year, I did a graphite portrait of his French Bulldog, Harley. This portrait is from a photo taken when she made herself at home on my bed early one morning. 

Harley -  pencil crayons in an Epsilon sketchbook. 

A series of pet portraits would not be complete without a portrait of the boss of my daughter’s family - Diva. I took this photo - at very close range of her as she sat on my lap fixing me with her unblinking stare.

She has perfected ‘The Look’. This often indicates that you are about to get a nip…

Diva - pencil crayons in an Epsilon sketchbook. 

#OneWeek100People 2023

Oh my! How the weeks speed by and all my earlier good intentions come to nothing.

I began this post shortly after completing the #OneWeek100people challenge in March and then forgot to add text and post it.

This challenge was started about seven years ago by Marc Taro Holmes and Liz Steel as an incentive to draw more people while sketching. Now many artists join in annually and post their drawings on Facebook page dedicated to the challenge. 

I’ve watched from afar each year, deciding this year to give it a go.

Here are my 100 people. 

A new rabbit hole - coloured pencils

Since 2020 and the resulting changes that were brought about by COVID, I have moved from painting large canvases to working smaller, and in mediums other than oils.

Painting and drawing in a sketchbook becomes a creative practice that is extremely portable - it’s quick to pick up at any time, anywhere. 

I’ve seen a number of artists working with coloured pencils, both water soluble and conventional oil or wax pencils, adding them to watercolour sketches. Over the years I’ve done a couple of coloured pencil drawings but have never felt pleased with the results. Looking at these now, I realise that the clumsy results are mostly because I have been impatient and worked too quickly and with too much pressure. I had also been working with pencils that were quite hard - one tin must date back to my school days! The manufacture of coloured pencils has seen many changes as new formulations are developed. Current pencils are buttery soft which makes blending a joy. In support of my new venture I decided that I needed to treat myself with a new set of Caran D’Ache coloured pencils.

It’s been a steep learning curve trying out my new pencils. I have had to test how various papers change the appearance of the drawing. I decided to make use of the many references for portraits available through the Museum app. Staying with a portrait theme eliminates the dither of trying to find suitable subject matter. The Caran D’Ache pencil set  I chose was the set of 20 for portraits. I am working in an Epsilon sketchbook which has a smooth white surface.

Here are a few of my first attempts..

Muse: Avonlea Sunshine from the Museum app

Muse: Teri Babayeva from the Museum app

Muse: Tammantha M from the Museum app

Muse: David Epstein from Museum app 

Muse: Stuart Goss from the Museum app

Muse: Gina Hawes from the Museum app

Muse: Gina Hawes from the Museum app