THE Pepper- in Coloured Pencil

 

  8x10 Coloured Prismacolor pencils 

over acrylic glazed background

on bristol board. My photo reference

  

This post is about a recent doggie portrait I painted. The subject is our faithful (to two separate families at the same time) pup pal, PEPPER, who passed over the rainbow bridge last year.

I took a photo I had of Pepper, and decided I was going to “paint” her in coloured pencils.

Since my main interest was the Pepper herself, I decided to rough in a mottled background in a light ocher acrylic glaze. I covered her drawing in a frisket cutout and sponged an acrylic wash over the background. I could be a bit sloppy in it's application since I had protected the drawing beforehand, and I've found that coloured pencils work over a thin acrylic glaze with ease.

 

 

After the glaze dried, I set to work with my coloured pencils. I started with her expressive eyes first, then roughed in more of her face. I “reserved” the white on her muzzle, chest and paws and worked around those areas with the various browns, dark colours and blacks of her coat.

I also reserved till the last some furry highlights on her black coat. Even with pre-planning, her longish fur gave me a bit of trouble.....showing highlights while maintaining her black fur. It didn't really help that she'd just had a “rough cut” haircut.....the only kind she would allow. She really wanted to hold onto all the cockle burs she picked up running thru the fields chasing after bunnies.

THE Pepper is on display at the Logan County Public Library for the month of April.