Well I think Gracie is done.....

Well I think she is done. Not an exact copy, but I feel I have kept Gracie's look. I'll give it a couple of days before I spray it.

This is the photo I worked off of.


Now I have to start again! After $60 and 2 1/2 hours she no longer looks like the same dog. I'm thinking of calling my drawing "time for a grooming" or "woolly bully". LOL

November virtual sketch date....

My sketch this month is just that, a sketch. I saw this guy lurking on the right hand side and sketched him out with a bit of embellishment.
You can see the photo on the VSD site. Jeanette of Illustrated Life supplied the photo. The list of participants will be on the VSD site on Sunday.



Quick sketches have been the rule this week. This guy was done for the weekly challenge over at Drawspace, the host was Elena.

Jeanette also started a sketching from life thread at DS.

Sketching is likely THE most valuable exercise you can do to improve your drawing skills. Also drawing from life is another. If you sketch daily, you'll soon see your ability to render form and light grow by leaps and bounds.

Now I have to find time to get back to drawing Gracie and getting my newest set of trading cards started.

Gracie has ears.....

Added fur to the lighter side. Here are some of the colours, white, cream, cloud blue, true blue, apple green, blush pink, parma violet, light umber, black cherry and indigo blue.

Worked on the ears and the darker side. Here are the colours, white, cloud blue, parma violet, true blue, light umber, violet, black cherry and indigo blue.


This photo gives a better idea on what the colours actually look like.
The sheet I am working on is about 8.5x13, I am hoping to frame it in an 8X10 frame. As you see I didn't plan that as well as I could have. Ha, I just remembered that I was actually thinking 5x7, so there should have been plenty of room to crop and frame. I basically drew in the nose and started working around it, so my minor planing went out the door. I have to learn not to do that.

A little fur.....

An update on Gracie.

Gracie is taking shape....

Here I have sketched in some more fur and worked on the nose. I am doing the fur at this point with cloud blue. Her nose has dark brown, peach, true blue, peacock green, violet, black cherry, indigo blue and white.

You can start to see some volume with the mouth filled in. I used a different picture for the mouth. I wanted a bit more tongue and less teeth to show. Her tongue has cloud blue, blush pink, pink, lilac, violet and white. Her teeth are white, cream, peach and light umber. Her gums and lip were done with indigo blue, black cherry, violet, true blue and white. The colours in the fur are bits and pieces of the colours named so far.

Getting started on the full Gracie....

I decided that I liked the Gracie nose on black paper enough to go ahead and do the full picture. This is the outline so far.

Here is the picture I will be working from. This was taken on a walk in the woods. I couldn't believe that she sat still long enough for me to get several pictures.


This is the Gracie nose with some white highlights added and trimmed into an ATC size. I also took the picture with better lighting, it shows more of the colours that I used.

A black nose....

I couldn't resist trying Gracie on black paper. Just a 3x3" of her nose. It was suggested that I might want to try her on gray paper. I'll have to see what I have in my scrapbook supplies and give it a try. I have been saying for ages that I wanted to try a mid-tone paper. If I like it I can go and buy some for a full picture.

Gracie's nose.....

I tried harder at the negative drawing with this one. This is something I will have to learn to do if I am going to draw Gracie. I will also have to learn more patience, I started getting to rough with the pencils near the end and started to lose my way. Well that is what practice is for, right?

Dog eyes and a nose.....

I am in a CP animal drawing class at Drawspace. Our first thing to do is try out some eyes, nose and fur. The picture on the top right is after I add more reddish browns, the dog was more red than I realized.



I didn't do as well on the dog's nose, not enough patience. Something you need loads of with CP.


I took my camera on our walk today, hoping to get some decent pictures of Gracie. The sun was really bright and washed her out a bit, she looks really grey here. Today was a real treat, it was warm enough to wear shorts.