Sketching Emma

I thought this week I'd let you see some sketching, using my other dog, Emma so that you can see the process I like to use.

First a photo - thankfully a ball works as a good distraction.

Using the photographic reference I faintly mark key parts of the portrait such as the proportions of the eyes and nose, to make sure to get an accurate likeness. Then I use a soft pencil, in this case a 4B and work on the darkest parts.

I then lighten the pressure to do blocks of dark shading. The sketchbook I work on creates a nice texture to the shading.

I then switch to a harder pencil such as a HB to do the lighter areas of shading.

After a few adjustments here and there the sketch is done! A larger version is available to see here.

I tried to get the model to pose with her picture- proved more difficult than I thought!

First Post

Hello, and welcome to my very first blog! Here I hope to post about my artwork and nature as these are two important elements of my life as an artist and countryside 'dweller'. I hope to have a dedicated website for my artwork in the not-too-distant future but for now people can see my artwork at katie-z.deviantart.com or if you've come from there - Hello!

I am aiming to post at least fortnightly and will be showing paintings or drawings I am working on with a little bit of local nature thrown in.

To all budding artists I recommend joining the forum at WetCanvas at the moment I am taking part in their April Class in the Animals & Wildlife forum getting some practise on painting animal eyes. My dog Jazz is the unwitting subject as I paint her in my sketchbook.

The completed painting can be found here.