Great Dane Pet Portrait finished

Firstly, apologies for not posting for over 10 days - I haven't been that lax with my blog since before Christmas when I had Christmas commissions to do. No real excuse this time - except for overtime at work and moving furniture round at home.

But anyway - here's what you've all been waiting for - the finished Pet Portrait of Strath:

And I was playing around taking some close-up photographs and this one was one of my favourites:

Great Dane update

At last I have a picture of Strath's portrait. Today I finished the background foliage and now have only grass to do. I'm pretty pleased with how the background came together today when I finished the bush in the background. The photo is a little squiffy, the path in the background is actually straight! Here it is:

Great Dane background progress

I didn't manage to get a camera battery, so had a brainwave and 'borrowed' the one out of Steve's camera! Here is the latest update:

As you can see i've finished the giant flower pot and the bird bath, and just started the first layer of green for the grass in the background.

Search Engine listings

I got a bit excited today, as I did my usual check of Google to see where my website is listed and i'm on page #1 for worldwide and uk only search for 'Pet Portraits'! I have my fingers crossed that it stays there, but I know that sometimes things jump about a bit and I am right at the bottom, so it'll only take upwards movement of one site and i'll be back on page #2. It has given me a bit of a confidence boost though.

On the portrait front - I have been working on the background of Strath the Great Dane's portrait, however, my camera battery has run out so I am unable to take photographs. Hopefully tommorrow i'll be able to get a battery and then show you an update.

Great Dane background

Here is the latest update on the pet portrait of Strath, the Great Dane in coloured pencil. I have drawn out the background and put in the 'underpainting' layer of coloured pencil. This is just a base layer for the darker colours to go on top of, so it's very sketchy at the moment. I will start working on some of the detail tomorrow, but for now, here is so far:

Great Dane completed...

...just the background to do now. Here is Strath's Pet Portrait so far:



As you can see, I have now finished the Great Dane. The customer has seen it and is happy so far, so now I need to work on the background. This Pet Portrait is having a full, detailed background of the owners garden. I shall post more updates shortly.

Great Dane work in progress

I have another update on Strath, the Great Dane in coloured pencil. I am hoping to have him finished over the next few days and to have started on the background by the end of the week.



Here is the portrait so far:


And here is a close up of the recently completed section:

Great Dane Update

Here is another update on Strath, the Great Dane in coloured pencil:


Strath's Pet Portrait is one of the ones currently on my website under work in progress, so you can also follow the progress of his portrait there.

Great Dane Update

Here is the latest update on Strath, the Great Dane:

It is a beautiful sunny day here today, and I have been sat in my conservatory where I do my drawing in short sleeves its that warm. It's lovely the days are now finally starting to get longer. It's light now till half five on a nice day, which means I have more hours to work on my coloured work in natural daylight.

Coloured Pencil Great Dane update

This afternoon I have been working on the coloured pencil portrait of Strath, the Great Dane. So far I have put down a base layer of Peach and started on the detail on his head. I have done his eyes. I often do the eyes first as they tend to be one of the darker areas so they give me a reference to help me build up the other colours. Here is a full body image

And a close up of the head detail

Great Dane portrait

You may remember ages ago I started a drawing of a Great Dane which was a prize for a Best in Show - well I have finally completed all my current commissions with set deadlines so have started on the Great Dane again. I wasn't happy with the first composition - I had too much background and not enough dog, so I started again. Here is the new pencil outline. This one is now at the top of the priority list so expect more updates next week and possibly at the weekend.