another work in progress

This is my first attempt at a portrait in colored pencils, it's certainly different from working with pastels! It's of my sister's Rottie, Mattie. (Don't know if it'll turn out, it might just join my other 'train wrecks' hidden away in the back of a closet...)

Train wreck?????:yikes: It looks fantastic already!:hail: :hail: I envy your talent.

I love it

Interesting to see your works in progress and compare to the way i work. I start at the eyes and the center of teh piece and work my way out. So far so good, looking forward to the next step.

Oops, hit the wrong button...

Thanks for the kind words, Doc and Jess. I can already see a couple of spots where I've messed up, but they should be fixable...

Smkie: Lol! That's how I usually start my basic line drawing once I'm past the general sketch for position stage. It seems easier to judge the distance between the various parts (ears, nose, etc.) once the eyes are in place.

Shading is all over the board for pencil, although I generally start in the vicinity of the eyes - With pastels (usually horses), once I have the shadows and highlights in place, I start my color layers at the nose and work up the face.

That's great!!! I love it. Definitely a great job. It's coming along nicely.

:yikes: Oh, WOW! It's beautiful!! :hail: I can't wait to see it when it's finished!!

I wish I knew how to draw in colored pencils.... (Can you teach me? )

Lol! That'd be hard cuz I don't know what I'm doing either... I did a google search for colored pencil technique and found a site that actually offers a tutorial online (and found out I had already screwed up from the get go. I had lightly sketched Mattie in a 3H graphite pencil for a starting point. According to this guy, graphite doesn't mix well with colored pencils and you're not supposed to do your preliminary drawing with it. Oh well... Lol!)

Can you please give me the link to the online tutorial? I'd love to see it.

And it definatly doesn't look like you've screwed up! I'm sure it'll turn out great.

This is the site: http://www.portrait-artist.org/color/colored-pencil-tutorial.html

It's for drawing people's faces but the principles are still the same...

Thanks, I'll check it out.

WOW its brilliant, cant wait to see the finished piece!!!

It's a beautiful piece of work so far, Snark . . . how's it coming? We need progress pics

Thanks everyone for the kind words. I'm working at our agility club's NADAC trial this weekend and I have to leave in about 15 minutes, so I'll see about posting something tonight.

Okay, here's a progress 'report'...

*swoon*

Just . . . Wow. Looking like a photograph already!

I am jealous, i miss working like that. CAnt wait to see the final. Looks great so far!

I love it!!!! Wonderful job. It's coming along so nicely.