I was so pleased when I saw this wonderful photo of Bella the Labrador and I couldn’t wait to draw her. The look on her face and with the tennis ball in her mouth, perfect. I love to draw a dog with something in their mouths, it gives an extra interest to the portrait and I think it works well.
I’m reasonably new to coloured pencils as a medium but I absolutely love using them and I will be doing more work with them whenever I get the chance. I love the cleanliness of them, they’re very clean to work with and you can get so much detail as you can sharper to a very good point but the work also has a very clear, clean look.
I’ve been using pastel pencils for several years now and I do love them but I think that some portraits work better with coloured pencils. If the photo is clear, in focus and I can see the detail when I zoom in closely then coloured pencils would work well, which is why I used them for this portrait of Bella. If the photo is not as clear then pastel pencils would be a good choice. There are, of course, other things to consider when deciding which medium to use, for example the fur type, is it short or long, which surface would work best, hotpress paper, pastelmat or drafting film. So many considerations!