Portrait of Allison

Here's my finished portrait of Allison.  I've sprayed the drawing with fixative and now can package up and ship the drawing to her new owner (Allison herself)....I hope she likes it

Here's a work in progress scan of my newest portrait.  This is Allison, she's 11 x 14 graphite on Bristol Smooth paper.  I'm using Pentel P205 0.5mm mechanical pencil with a 2B lead only.  I'm blending with a medium tortillion and soft tissue paper.  For the highlighted strands of hair, I'm using a Papermate Tuff Stuff eraser stick which I've cut at an angle so that I get a nice sharp edge.  I then "draw" the individual highlighted strands of hair.  More to come soon!!!

Buster Complete

Here's my latest portrait, Buster!   He's 11 x 14 graphite on Strathmore Bristol Smooth paper.

Event - Spence Farm - Woburn Farmer's Market Sunda June 21st from 10:00 - 2:00 PM

Spence Farm - Woburn Farmer's Market
Date: Sunday June 23, 2013
Time: 10:00 - 2:00 PM
Location:
41 Wyman Street
Woburn, MA. 01801

Come visit the Woburn Guild of Artists' tent where I along with other artists will be drawing and painting. If you're in the area, stop by and say hi.

Buster WIP 7

Here's another update of Buster. Sorry for the bad photo, I took the photo in a dimly lit room. I'll take a better photo on my next update which should be my final update before Buster is completely finished. I have his face completed finished and am now starting to work on a bit of his shoulder and chest area. I'll post another update soon!

Buster WIP 6

Here's another update on my portrait of Buster. I am working on his other ear and am starting to add hair to the right side of his face (screen's left). I'm using strictly a 0.5mm mechanical pencil with a 2B lead. I'm blending with a medium tortillion and soft bathroom tissue. I then pick out the lighter hair with a Tuff Stuff Eraser stick which I cut at an angle to get a nice sharp edge so that I can "draw" a nice thin line. I hope to have Buster finished this weekend....more to come soon!

Buster WIP 5

Here's a small update on my portrait of Buster. I'm working around the jowel area now. I'm still blending with a medium tortillion and "drawing" in the lighter fur and whiskers using a Tuff Stuff eraser stick. More to come soon!

Buster WIP 4

Here's an update on my portrait of Buster. I completed his right eye and worked on his chin a bit. Tonight I used a 0.5mm Pentel Mechanical Pencil with a 2B lead. I blended using a medium tortillion with light pressure. I used a Tuff Stuff eraser pen which I cut at an angle so I get a sharp edge which I use to "draw" the highlighted hair. I then go over the entire drawing using a 2 inch hake brush. The bristles of the hake brush is very soft so I'm not worried about smudges but I feel that pulls everything together nicely and gives a nice polished look to the piece; though it may not do anything really but I do love to use it :-)

Woburn Guild of Artists

The Woburn Guild of Artists are meeting tonight at New Horizons at Choate in the Terrace Lounge in Woburn from 7:00 - 9:00 PM.   I will be bringing Buster with me to work on.  It's going to be a great meeting, always is.  I'll be posting an update on Buster either tonight or tomorrow.

If any one is interested in becoming a member of the Woburn Guild of Artists, please visit our web site at www.woburnartguild.org for more details and to get a glimpse of all the things we do throughout the year.

Buster WIP 3

Here's an update on my portrait of Buster. I'm using a Pentel 0.5mm Mechanical Pencil with a 2B lead for the darks. For lighter tone, I'm using a 4H lead. I'm blending using a medium tortillion and soft tissue paper. I pick out lighter strands of hair/fur using a Tuff Stuff eraser which I cut at an angle to get a nice sharp edge. For highlights, I use a kneaded eraser which I pinch together to get a nice sharp edge. I'm still making adjustments to the tone but I'm going to moving on as I try to continue to bring Buster to life on paper.

Buster WIP 2

Here's a small update to my portrait of Buster.  It's been awhile but I took some time off to rejuvenate myself and to re-dedicate myself to my drawing - and more specifically - to my  portraits.  I want them to be more realistic and more meaningful.   With that said, it's time to get back to work and start bringing Buster to life on paper.

Being left handed, I like working from right to left on the paper.  I keep a piece of scrap paper under my drawing hand so that I don't smudge the line drawing underneath and make a mess out of the whole thing.  For the eye, I used  a 0.5mm Pentel P205 mechanical pencil with a 2B lead.  For darkening the pupil and the area around the pupil, I drew tiny tiny overlapping circles (really I just drew in a circular motion as opposed to drawing in actual circles).  I blended the area with a medium tortillion and darkened the pupil a bit more.  I repeated the blending process and drawing process until I was satisfied - that is the result you see here. 

Next, I will be continuing on the area around the eye.  The challenge will be how to get realistic texture on a dog that is mostly white????  The answer is with shadows.   I hope to manipulate the light and shadow in a way that I can create realistic looking fur/hair on Buster.  The area around his eyes and mouth are a pinkish tone in real life so I'm going to keep this area fairly light.   I'll be posting an update soon!!!

Buster WIP 1

I started a new drawing tonight.  It's another dog drawing - I'm starting to really enjoy these.

This is Buster, he's a 6 year old white Boxer.   He looks intimidating because of his size but he's just a big bundle of love.   He's a cookie thief and loves massages.  The worse thing he may do to someone is lick them like crazy or try to get up and sit on their laps.   There's nothing funnier than seeing this big ole dog sitting on someone's lap. 

This drawing is 11 x 14 graphite on Strathmore Bristol Smooth paper.  I used a 0.5mm mechanical pencil with a 2B lead for the line drawing.  My line drawing is the "ugly" phase of my process.  The lines are loosely drawn and doesn't look like much at this point.  I use my line drawing for mapping purposes only.  It's the foundation of my portrait.  Once I have all of the features measured out and placed where I want them, I can start to build tone and texture and hopefully bring my subject to life on paper.

I'll be posting my work in progress images as I go along.  More to come soon so stay tuned!!!

Happy New Year!!!!

I want to wish everyone, especially those that follow me a very Happy and Healthy New Year!!!  My wish for everyone is that every day is filled with love, creativity, fun, laughs, prosperity, and great memories.  

I hope to bring my art to the next level in 2013 and I'll be introducing color into my work as I'll be doing some portraits using colored pencils. 

Happy drawing!!!!