Happy New Year everyone. I hope any who received pet portraits off me for Christmas are pleased with their gift. I have plenty more lined up this year, so who knows, you could be the lucky recipient of one of my pet portraits too!

I am going to try and do some more WIP this year. I eventually want to be able to teach so I think doing this will help me map out how I will work my lessons.

First up is a dog portrait. I initially do a rough sketch to make sure all the proportions are correct. I never do this on the surface I am working on as I tend to make mistakes and rub out alot and don’t want to damage the pastelmat. Pastelmat is great for pastels, it really grips the pigment and gives the pet portraits a really nice soft effect. Great if you are trying to replicate fur! I know some people who use velour for their paintings, but I find it looses the pastel too easily. With the slightest knock. This doesn’t happen with pastelmat.

Once I am happy with the sketch of the dog portrait I transfer it to my new sheet of pastelmat. There are a few ways of doing this. I use tracedown paper.

When this is done you are ready to start the fun bit. The painting/drawing in of your dog portrait.

Over the next few days I will talk you through the next few steps, but for now please see below my outline sketch ready to start work on tomorrow and over the weekend.