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 Briscoe was this white heart at the top of his head.
This is the 10th portrait I’ve done for this household since 1996. Five Dobermans, two Old English Sheepdogs, a Border Collie, and a Beagle. Most have been memorial portraits. Briscoe is alive and well and enthusiastically fetching balls.
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After I made the white heart, I worked outward to the left and the right doing both ears, and the rest of Briscoe’s forehead.
Prismacolor pencil on grey Canson paper
18 x 23 inches
Briscoe portrait in progress 2
Now working on Briscoe's eyes….
Eyes bring life to a portrait.
Briscoe portrait in progress 3
People are always amazed at how lifelike the eyes look in my artwork...
They are just shapes and colors.
If an artist can copy those shapes and colors accurately, they will end up with a realistic-looking eye.
In this close-up you can see the pencil strokes. Colored pencil on grey paper.
Briscoe portrait in progress 4
The next thing to emerge is Briscoe’s nose….
Then I continue filling in his white muzzle around it - lots of little white hairs on the grey paper.
Briscoe portrait in progress 5
Briscoe's smile emerging out of the grey.
This photo taken in the studio with my colored pencils gives a sense of how large Briscoe is in this portrait.
Briscoe portrait in progress 6
With the mouth and chin finished, Briscoe’s smiling face has really come to life.
There were some tricky colors in the tongue. You might think it's just a “pink” tongue. Think again. Here are the colors actually in it. I try to find pencil colors close to those, or I layer multiple pencil colors (for example dark purple, chocolate brown, and raspberry for the shadowed part) to create these colors.
Here are the same swatches on white. These are the “pink tongue” colors.
Briscoe portrait in progress 7
Continuing work on Briscoe’s portrait. His face finished and now adding the fringes of hair at the sides with about a dozen shades of grey pencils, plus of course black and white.
This is the 10th portrait I’ve done for Carolyn, Gloria, and Tammy. And they have another one in the pipeline for next year. Would you say these people are addicted to Roeckl portraits?! 🤣
Briscoe portrait finished!
This is the 10th portrait I’ve done for this household since 1996. Two Border Collies, five Dobermans, two Old English Sheepdogs, and a Beagle. Most have been memorial portraits. Briscoe is alive and well and enthusiastically fetching balls for his loving owner, Gloria.
Prismacolor pencil on "Felt grey" Canson Mi-Teintes paper
18 x 23 inches
I’ve created 10 canine portraits for Gloria, Carolyn, Susan, and Tammy. Five Dobermans, two Old English Sheepdogs, two Border Collies, and a Beagle. You can see all of them in my DOGS Gallery, DOBERMANS Gallery, and NEW WORK Gallery. Soon I'll be portraying their cat too!
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