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Shasta portrait in progress 12 - Slow, painstaking work

Kevin Roeckl

Jul 221 min read

Shasta portrait in progress 12 - Slow, painstaking work

Carefully working the greens of the background around the back-lit hairs of Shasta's ears. Unlike the underpainting technique on the...

7 views

Shasta portrait in progress 11 - Greens and golds

Kevin Roeckl

Jul 202 min read

Shasta portrait in progress 11 - Greens and golds

Shasta herself is finished. I always love the way it looks when the subject is “3-dimensional” on the flat grey paper! Next I’ll start on...

4 views

Shasta portrait in progress 10 - Pausing for a little blue

Kevin Roeckl

Jul 173 min read

Shasta portrait in progress 10 - Pausing for a little blue

After I finished Shasta’s head and neck, I continued working my way down her body. But I had to pause my pencilwork for a series of steps...

6 views

Shasta portrait in progress 9 - Perfect for notecards

Kevin Roeckl

Jul 171 min read

Shasta portrait in progress 9 - Perfect for notecards

Shasta’s white ruff is finished. A set of custom notecards is included with my portraits. Usually the whole portrait is on the card. But...

3 views

Shasta portrait in progress 8 - The story behind the art

Kevin Roeckl

Jul 112 min read

Shasta portrait in progress 8 - The story behind the art

Cheryl sent me the most adorable picture of Shasta “belly up” on the chaise yesterday. I’ve come to know her through Cheryl’s and Tk’s...

5 views

Shasta portrait in progress 7 - That happy smile!

Kevin Roeckl

Jul 81 min read

Shasta portrait in progress 7 - That happy smile!

Shasta’s happy smile is finished. This is how the whole portrait looks now. The background will be a detailed scene of a hiking trail in...

6 views

Shasta portrait in progress 6 - What color is a tongue?

Kevin Roeckl

Jul 52 min read

Shasta portrait in progress 6 - What color is a tongue?

Today I'm adding Shasta’s tongue. What color is a dog's tongue? Pink, you might say. Is it really? There are some colors in a dog’s...

7 views

Shasta portrait in progress 5 - The importance of eyes

Kevin Roeckl

Jun 291 min read

Shasta portrait in progress 5 - The importance of eyes

It’s the day I’m doing Shasta’s eyes. The most critical part of any portrait. A whole bunch of reference photos are on the monitor to...

4 views

Shasta portrait in progress 4 - "Value control"

Kevin Roeckl

Jun 262 min read

Shasta portrait in progress 4 - "Value control"

Started working on Shasta’s head today. When Diane saw these in-progress pics, she wrote: “Looking good! EXCITING!!!!” In my last two...

4 views

Shasta portrait in progress 3 - The forests of Vancouver

Kevin Roeckl

Jun 251 min read

Shasta portrait in progress 3 - The forests of Vancouver

The forest trees are finished. In my last post I shared an explanation of how I’m using the grey of the paper for most of the color in...

5 views

Shasta portrait in progress 2 - In a sunlit forest

Kevin Roeckl

Jun 222 min read

Shasta portrait in progress 2 - In a sunlit forest

The first 3 days work on Shasta’s portrait. I’m working on a sheet of “Felt Grey” Canson paper, my favorite background color to work on....

8 views

Briscoe portrait in progress - start to finish

Kevin Roeckl

Jun 142 min read

Briscoe portrait in progress - start to finish

March 10 Starting a portrait of Briscoe, a Border Collie and the heart dog of Gloria K. The first thing I saw when I began working on...

5 views

Cooper portrait in progress - start to finish

Kevin Roeckl

Jun 1210 min read

Cooper portrait in progress - start to finish

April 2 I'm starting another portrait of a Doberman with a special story. Maura Reilly asked if she could get on my wait list for a...

1 view

Kevin Roeckl

May 121 min read

Happy Mother's Day!

Happy Mother’s Day to all the beautiful mothers. If you are a mother, this means ❤️ YOU ❤️ “Mother's Garden" Prismacolor pencil on...

3 views

Kevin Roeckl

Apr 251 min read

Cooper portrait finished!

This portrait was a surprise gift from Maura Reilly to Diane and Michael Schurman. On Facebook Diane wrote: “You’ve made Michael and I so...

16 views

Cooper portrait in progress 8 - Tools of the artist's life

Kevin Roeckl

Apr 193 min read

Cooper portrait in progress 8 - Tools of the artist's life

I wanted to share a few of the photos I took while working in the studio over the course of Cooper’s portrait. With some...

7 views

Cooper portrait in progress 7 - Color swatches help the artist

Kevin Roeckl

Apr 152 min read

Cooper portrait in progress 7 - Color swatches help the artist

I'm working my way down Cooper's body. This photo, taken in the studio while I was working, shows his body in progress with the pencil...

12 views

Kevin Roeckl

Apr 121 min read

Cooper portrait in progress 6

Cooper's blue collar added. I could have made the collar any color, but blue worked well with the colors in this portrait. To make these...

2 views

Cooper portrait in progress 5 - Emerging...

Kevin Roeckl

Apr 121 min read

Cooper portrait in progress 5 - Emerging...

1 Now that Cooper’s face is emerging, you can see why I wanted a background color that is a bit “wild”. 2 Cooper’s face completed. It was...

2 views

Cooper portrait in progress 4 - The perfect color

Kevin Roeckl

Apr 91 min read

Cooper portrait in progress 4 - The perfect color

Cooper’s face beginning to emerge. This was definitely the right background color for Cooper. He is starting to pop out nicely. Colored...

4 views

about

About Kevin

I've been a professional Artist for 40 years. It's more than a job, it's my passion. I have lots of beautiful and interesting things I want to share with you! Step into my studio and I'll show you.

About this Blog

I started sharing "in progress" posts of my artwork on social media, and I found that people love watching the artwork take shape day by day, with detailed explanations. So I made a blog to expand the ways I can share the process of creating art.

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