Meg

• Subject: Jack Russell
• Medium:Coloured pencil
• Completion Date: October 15, 2011
• Completion Time: 300 hours
• Dimensions: 14.5'' X 13''
• Background: Grass

While I was exhibiting my work and demonstrating  animal portraiture at Brentwood library this  summer, a customer  purchased a cat portrait titled ‘Star Gazer’ executed in coloured pencil (the image appears in my portfolio)  she then approached me enquiring about a commission of her Jack Russell named Meg using the same medium.

I have previously only dabbled with coloured pencils as I find them to be a very slow process and had never really explored them to their full potential, but I rose to the challenge as my client felt that the pencil work would display Meg’s textured coat well.  I have very much enjoyed being artistically stretched and will continue my relationship with coloured pencils in the future.

Meg’s portrait was produced on rough watercolour paper, 140lb in weight and the coloured pencils used were ‘Karisma’ which unfortunately have been discontinued.  This fact I found quite devastating as I am now hooked on them!  The advantage of these particular pencils is the abilility to sharpen them to an extended point for fine detail and their very waxy content lends them well to blending and burnishing achieving an almost varnished effect if required.

Firstly time was spent creating a master drawing of Meg which I then transposed on to the watercolour paper to eliminate the need to erase errors and possibly damage the surface.  I  began by blocking in areas on Meg’s body with light shading to define her markings,  ensuring that white areas were left untouched.  The eyes and nose were then mapped out and a highlight around the pupil secured, the base colours of the grass were then added in a range of greens, blues and ochre shades with darker browns to mark where the shadows would lie.

Once the base colours were established I then concentrated solely on the background with the drive being that once the background was in place I could move on to the exciting part of creating Meg’s image, a bit like saving the icing until last!  The grass was gradually built up with continuous linear marks of varying lengths using the same range of colours and gradually increasing the pressure.  Areas were then blended using a paper stump and sections were burnished by using yellow and cream shades.

Meg’s image was produced by paying attention to the way her fur grew and sculpturing the pencil work to follow this.  Sections were blended with constant overlaying of colour to build depth and areas were burnished with white pencil to add shine to the surface.  To achieve the effect of thicker fur on the chest varying shades of cool grey were sketched in and fine areas pulled out with small pieces of plastic eraser.  Finally fine flicks were dragged into the darker background around the image to create the soft edges of Meg’s coat using the eraser again and a liberal spray of fixative was used to enrich the colours.

Meg’s picture had to be stored at my parents to prevent me peeking
before Christmas, it was worth the wait!  I love it.  The medium used
really brings Meg to life. You have captured her cheeky expression
exactly.  The picture has pride of place on our wall and is admired by
all our visitors.

Thank you for sharing your talent with us.