Well I am sure Trevor isn’t an Everton supporter, but more his Mum or Dad is! However it is nice to include something that is also personel to their owners in my pet portraits.
Trevow is a cute white terrier and his portrait is going to be unframed and will measure 10×12 inches. My client has a sliver frame waiting for his portrait which helped decide the background for this cute little dog portrait.
We opted for a grey type background which will match the frame and Trevor beautifully. Did I mention how much I love his name? It suits him so much and I am a sucker for human names for dogs. Both mine have them Luke and Maggie.
As usual I started with a sketch which I then went over and re-established it with a white pastel pencil as he is predominantly white. I blocked in the main areas and then decided to experiment with my panpastels with the background. So far I am not so keen on the coverage of panpastels for the background. However this is my first real attempt and I have mainly used them for the first layer or blocking in of the dogs. More can be read about it in this blog, and there will be more to follow as this isn’t finished yet.
Saying that, I did find that the sponges and applicators were good for moving my usual layer of soft pastel I apply for the backgrounds. It helps move the pastel close to the outline of the animal which I can then blend with my finger. It keeps it neater to the edges and less pigment fills the tooth of the paper. It means I don’t have to rely on my brush to remove it when I want to add those small whisps of fur or tiny details. I think this could make my like a lot easier.
One thing I have noticed is the sponges do tear quickly, and that would be even worse on a sanded paper like Fisher400. I have bought some makeup sponges which are cheaper and I hope may work as well. I will update in another blog. Infact I may do a condensed one with all my panpastel discoveries together. These are the ones I bought. I almost bought some cheap makeup applicators, but I didn’t want to add to the single use plastic. This is what I love about the Sofft ones, the sponges are replaceable therefore cutting down on plastic waste. I may end up using a combination.