Diesel...he is drawn!

Meet 

"DIESEL"

Diesel is my current commission artwork to create as a memorial portrait.  

Here's a few other photos of Diesel...he sure was a cute dog!

(I'll be using this photo for reference since the photo I chose to work from is fairly dark.)

Looks like he liked ice cream!  Isn't it funny how you see the dots on his face in this photo from where his hairs came out from but not on the other photos?  Hmmm...should I put them in or not?  

I was going back and forth between these two photos for different reasons.  The one above really shows detail...but he didn't look so happy.

The one below, his head is chopped off, and although he looks happy, you don't see the sheen in his coat.  So I opted to do the one of him ''smiling", and work with these other photos as reference.  

No doubt this will make it harder, but I like challenges.  

So tonight, after a long day of errands, I started Diesel.  It's just a drawing, but I started.

For those of you who have followed me, know I will work on the eyes first, and probably the nose or mouth, and work from there on, but I thought it may be fun for a change to show a little more to how I make decisions with my painting techniques.  

I like to have the photo area I'm working from enlarged so I can see what I'm working on.  I use my iPad to zone in on detail.  As you can tell, his actual photo of him smiling is when he was in a crouched position playing, so I had to tilt his head up a bit to make it look more realistic.  

Here is the other photo (shown on my iPad) which I'll be using as reference.  

Using an iPad for my portrait work is so helpful.  I wish I could say I figured this out for myself, but I learned it from another artist.  That is why I SHARE so much of my art knowledge, it is always nice to learn something new.  Many artists aren't like that, they feel they need to protect themselves from others stealing from them...but I'm an open book.  If you have a question ask.  If I don't know the answer, I'll ask enough people who will know and get back to you.  

Diesel will be a pastel portrait.  Right now his overall size is 12" X 12".  Which should make it fairly easy for the owner to get framed.  If the owner just gets a mat cut the right way, she should be able to find a decent sized frame.  I always try to make the portraits about this size, it truly depends on the breed of the dog, and the photos from which I have to work.