Neppy

 

5/22/26 Neptune (reference photo by Linda Lee)

From the many stories I’ve been told about the pets I’ve drawn, I gather that rescue pups are a hardy lot. They’ve already survived untold hardships before finding their forever homes. Once they know they are safe and loved, they have reason to keep on barking.

A Papillon and Chihuahua mix, Neptune lived to the ripe old age of 14, despite numerous health issues. A friend commissioned this drawing to give to her aunt, Neppy’s mom.

RIP, Neppy.

Maisy and Sammy

 

4/6/26 Sammy (reference photo by Tom Constantini)

3/21/26 Maisy (reference photo by Natalie Taylor)

Although I haven’t been doing as many commissioned pet portraits lately, I’m happy for the opportunities to practice that keep coming up. Last month when I was an ArtSpot featured artist during Art Walk Edmonds, I demo’d a few pet portraits for visitors who had photos on their phones. I started Maisy on the spot, but then more people came by to chat, and I felt too distracted to finish. I told Maisy’s mom that I’d finish at home and give it to her later. Drawing Maisy with a brush pen gave me a good opportunity to include a stepped-out example in my workshop handout. (My brush pen workshop is tomorrow! I’ll report back soon on how that went.)

The calico was a sadder event. A friend posted on Facebook that his beloved Sammy had just passed away at a ripe old age. It’s always a joy to sketch a beautiful animal, and I hope the gift brings some comfort.

An Old Moleskine

 

3/4/26 photo reference

I’ve lately had less need for my doomscrolling prevention program. It helps that we’ve flipped the clocks forward, and the Big Dark is over. Gloom and doom in the news is somehow easier to bear when there’s still light left after dinner. In a few weeks, I’ll be able to take short golden hour walks again – the best time to simply enjoy walking without a fitness goal or destination.

After being inspired initially by Orla Stevens’ mixed media and other approaches (even imaginative), I seem to have settled into monochrome sketches using Derwent Drawing pencils. It’s the most relaxing and therefore the most direct in taking my mind off whatever unpleasantness it might be occupied with.

3/18/26 photo reference

Trees in the urban landscape from my own camera roll are an easy go-to. But recently I was thinking about all the portraiture I practiced several years ago using Earthsworld’s reference photos. I’m very rusty, and portraiture always includes some tension because I can’t shake the desire for resemblance. But portraiture also offers interesting challenges that continue to captivate me, even if more mental energy is required.

The prompt for portraiture came from the sketchbook I used for these three sketches: a very old Moleskine that contains that weird, heavy, manila-folder-like paper. The first half of the book is filled mainly with portraits I made with ballpoint pen or marker – the ideal media for use on this smooth, strangely water-repellent paper. Since the surface feels similar to Stillman & Birn Zeta, I thought I’d give it a try with Derwent Drawing pencils – and I like it! Those soft pencils seem to glide effortlessly. (My mission to complete partially filled sketchbooks continues!)

3/18/26 Earthsworld reference photo

Skimming the portraits gave me a heavy pang. Dated 2022 and 2023, those portraits were a large part of my original doomscrolling prevention program: Instead of news reports of current events, I was doomscrolling my own anxiety as I taught myself how to navigate caregiving responsibilities. Despite all that is going on in the world now, nothing in the current media gives me as much pain and stress as that period of my life did. Seeing the portrait practice gives me compassion for my former self, and I feel much gratitude.

Henry

 

1/23/26 Henry (reference photo by Lori Merriam)

When a friend shared a photo on Facebook of her dog with a fresh haircut, Henry stole my heart. Posting another photo recently, she sadly reported that the elderly dog had to be put down. I went back through her images to find the one of Henry’s haircut. Drawing his sweet face brought me much joy; I hope it brings her some comfort.

Playing and Eating

 

1/30/26 Panama Hotel Cafe, Chinatown/International District

The Panama Hotel Café is one of our favorite places to sketch. Roy, Mary Jean and I hadn’t been able to get together since before Christmas, so it was especially fun to meet up there for a morning of art play. My view (at left) wasn’t especially fun to sketch, but I didn’t care; the Panama’s ambiance is quiet, relaxing and, we all agreed, comfortable as a second home.

More fun was when we began our portrait party. Taking turns as the sitter, we made blind contour drawings and also sketched with our non-dominant hand. Hilarious both ways!

Mary Jean with my right hand

Mary Jean as blind contour

Roy as blind contour

Roy with my right hand

For lunch we tried E-Jae Pak-Mor, a Thai restaurant that had received a favorable review recently in the Seattle Times. With many items on the menu that I don’t see on typical Thai menus, it was clear why the Times called it one of Seattle’s best restaurants. I hastily sketched my Pakmor salad bowl before devouring it.

E-Jae Pak Mor (journal page incorrectly dated)

Full of that delicious lunch, I still had one thing that had been weighing heavily on my mind all day: Jan. 30 was National Croissant Day! Where would I get a croissant in Chinatown/International District? Googling “croissants near me” yielded literally nothing within walking distance, but MJ recalled seeing croissants at Fuji Bakery. I’d only ever had their amazing Crunchy Creamy Malasada doughnut, which had blinded me to all other pastries at the time, but sure enough, Fuji offered many types of croissants, too. It was just as well that they have only a takeout counter and no seating area, as I was too full for one just then – but take one out I did.

Later at home, I enjoyed my pain au chocolat, relieved not to miss observing one of my favorite holidays of the year.

Eating and drawing with good friends – does it get any better?

Sammy

 

1/12/26 Sammy (reference photo by Katelyn This)

This commissioned portrait of sweet Sammy was a gift for the buyer’s friend, who had recently had to put down the 18-year-old pup. I could see what a long, well-loved life he had had. RIP, Sammy.

Technical notes: It was the kind of reference photo I dreaded back when my approach was to be as realistic as possible. The image was a low-res thumbnail, the lighting was dark, and the whole face was a bit out of focus. I couldn’t even see much of the eyes, let alone a sparkling catchlight. Arrrggh!

I knew a brush pen would save me from having to render what I couldn’t see; I could simply capture the gesture and essence of Sammy’s sweetness. For the all-important eyes, I fudged, mostly from experience: I created catchlights where there were none, and I’ve drawn enough dogs’ eyes to fill in what the photo didn’t provide. I hope Sammy’s human will see her beloved somewhere in the portrait.

Treating Myself Like a Dog

 

12/31/25 Sketched from mirror

When I looked at my social media feeds on the last day of 2025, several friends had posted self-portraits. Then my own Facebook “memories” showed me selfies I had drawn on previous New Year’s Eves. How could I forego that tradition?

Since I’ve been training myself to sketch pet portraits more efficiently, I decided it was time to treat myself like a dog. I used exactly the same process as I did with every labradoodle, terrier and Chihuahua I sketched during Pencilvember: First I spent some time on the eyes with a bit of care, and then I shaded in the rest of the face and hair relatively quickly. I used a rainbow pencil for the early line work, then did the color with a few preselected Derwent Drawing pencils. I spent more than the 20 minutes I gave myself for pet portraits (alas, vanity is still a factor with selfies), but overall, it was less laborious than most self-portraits I’ve drawn.

I figure that if I have the courage to sketch (and share!) a self-portrait, I have everything I need to face whatever challenges the new year brings.

Three Pups, Three Materials

 

12/19/25 Jaxon (Pentel Pocket)

12/19/25 Roxy (Holbein) (all drawings on Lenox Cotton)

12/21/25 Sammy (Derwent Drawing)

I made these pup portraits as a gift for a friend. Although they won’t look very cohesive displayed together, I felt like making each dog with a different material. Jaxon was made with my favorite Pentel Pocket brush pen. I used Derwent Drawing pencils on Sammy because I’m currently having a lovefest with that set. Holbein is not a pencil I ever think to reach for, but since I had them out for the opacity comparison I did recently, I used them on Roxy. I could hardly remember the last time I used them to sketch anything.

I don’t know what it is about Holbein: They blend beautifully; they are deliciously soft; they feel as close to graphite as any colored pencil can (which is a good thing). Yet I’ve never purchased more than the 50 colors I originally bought. Exorbitant price notwithstanding, I have never felt compelled to. I want to love them, and yet I don’t. Especially now that Derwent Drawing comes in a full palette.

Moral Dilemma Evaded: New Colors of Derwent Drawing!

 

72 colors at last!

Once in a rare while, my blog pays off in unexpected ways.

When I first reviewed Derwent Drawing Pencils back in 2018, I mentioned what many fans of these pencils have long complained about: Why hasn’t the British pencil manufacturer expanded the color range of this long-standing, unique line of colored pencils? (Though with good humor, some of us regularly pestered the company on social media whenever they promote the Drawing line.) With a muted, earthy palette that’s great for landscapes and animals, the range is still lacking some obvious natural hues – greens, a few yellows, one or two blues. Don’t landscapes usually include skies, foliage or water? Not to mention flowers! And wildlife sketchers might as well forget about birds!

With so many colored pencil lines offering a full range of hues, why do we care whether Derwent Drawing stays with its 24 earthy hues? I care because these pencils are unique in having a whopping 5mm core – thicker than any colored pencil I’ve used. And not just thick – it’s also amazingly soft and creamy. Because of that super-soft core, it’s my favorite for life drawing. At times, it’s almost like crayon or lipstick in its smooth richness of application.

A whopping 5mm core

Derwent Drawing Chinese White:
used more than any other single color of any line.

In addition, based on my stubs, I’ve used Derwent Drawing Chinese White more than any other single colored pencil (although I have a couple of greens in the Caran d’Ache Museum Aquarelle line that might come close). It’s still my most opaque white pencil. If only Derwent would add just a few more useful hues to the line, I would reach for these luscious pencils way more often.

You can imagine my ecstasy a couple of months ago when I saw Derwent’s announcement: The Drawing line has been expanded to 72 colors! Finally!

Then immediately following my initial excitement, I was beset with a moral dilemma: With my commitment to downsizing and staying downsized, could I justify buying the complete set of 72? I looked closely at the new colors, which I knew would be available open stock. When I started checking off the ones I “must” have, hardly any would be left behind! I might as well buy the complete set! But is that excessive? Would I be sliding back down the slippery slope? But how could I not buy all 72 colors of pencils I love so much! Aughh, the turmoil!

Blick’s website said the new colors and set of 72 would not be in stock until January, so that gave me time to wring my hands a while longer.

That’s when the most astounding colored pencil miracle occurred:

An image that probably caught the rep's eye

I received a message through Instagram from a Derwent representative in the UK who provides product training to retailers. She had found my 2019 blog post in which I talked about how vintage Derwent (called Rexel Cumberland then) Drawing pencils were the same high quality as contemporary ones. This was unusual, as most contemporary colored pencils are better than their vintage predecessors. The Derwent rep asked permission to use some of my images “in a training presentation about the heritage of the range.” I blushed with pride at that; it’s not often that my colored pencil history geekiness is acknowledged that way! I happily granted permission (with credit, of course).

As we further exchanged messages, I couldn’t help but express my excitement that the Drawing color range had been expanded. That’s when it happened: She offered to send me the full set of 72 in appreciation for the use of my images! (Thank you so much, Justine and Derwent!) 

Ahhh...that Good & Plenty scent!

So here I am, delighted owner of the complete set, moral dilemma evaded (at least this time). It’s been so long since I unwrapped a brand new set of pencils that I nearly swooned! The scent when I first opened the lid was very close to the intoxicating scent of vintage Prismacolors – which I can only describe as Good & Plenty. Since they are both soft, wax-based pencils, perhaps there’s something about the wax binder that evokes licorice (which I don’t like to eat but I love to smell)?

The original palette included lots of browns and
and other earth tones. (I've used these pencils for many
years; they show what I think of as Derwent's main
appearance flaw: The end caps chip with very little use.)

OK, enough about their scent – let’s talk about the new colors. Other than my daily-carry Chinese White, I hadn’t used Drawing pencils in a while – maybe since the last time I went to life drawing. It was like being reacquainted with an old friend to swatch all the colors. Included in the grid below are the original 24 along with the new, but you can see from my small “bouquet” image (at right) that the original range was mostly earth tones and white. 

I’m most excited about all those new natural greens in the bottom row – and not a single recycle bin green or traffic light green that so many large colored pencil sets include! All of these greens could be used directly for foliage and fir – a beautiful selection.

A few much-needed yellows are included, as well as several blues. With a couple of pinks, a lavender and a few orangey reds (some of which are questionably similar), even florals are now possible. I can also see that several skin tones have been added for portraiture. (All those new grays are the only ones I would have skipped if I had bought the new colors open stock.)

The complete 72-color range (swatched in Stillman & Birn Epsilon sketchbook)

In addition to the original Chinese White, two new whites are included: a cool Arctic and a warmer Oyster. On black paper, they look quite similar, but their differences show better on white paper (in the fifth row). All three are equally opaque.

Two new whites, plus the original Chinese white (swatched in Uglybook)

Updated 12/15/25 I don't typically swatch colored pencils on black paper for reviews, but these Drawing pencils are so opaque that I thought it would be useful to see the whole range (especially given my penchant for nocturnes). Some very nice colors on black here! 

As I’d hoped and expected, Derwent is keeping the Drawing line focused on a natural palette. Although an urban sketcher might still need recycle bin and traffic light greens (though one of those new yellows could easily pass for heavy equipment), if all you sketch is nature studies, landscapes, animals and portraits, I daresay that the new Drawing collection is the only colored pencil set you would need. 

(Maybe it’s the only color range any of us need? I’m curious; I think I’ll make some mixing swatches to see how these natural hues come together. With such a limited range, the Drawing pencils had never been an all-purpose line, but now with a full palette, how do they compare with other favorite colored pencils? Hmmm . . . some interesting testing ahead!)

My new pencils arrived only a few days before I had received a commission to draw Ginger, a friend’s Papillon. I had never done a pet portrait using Drawing pencils, and it was a bit risky to do a commission with pencils I hadn’t used in quite a while, but I couldn’t wait to use them. I shouldn’t have worried; they were just as creamy, thick and wonderful as ever. Without the new colors, I couldn’t have sketched Ginger without supplementing from other sets: All four pencils I used on her are from the new selection.

I’m looking forward to using these on more pet portraits this winter.

Edited 2/12/26: I love these pencils so much that I've added a few to my daily-carry kit. General urban sketching hazards such as dropping implements on the sidewalk have shown me that Derwent Drawing cores are relatively delicate compared to other high-quality pencils (such as Caran d'Ache Museum Aquarelles, which are almost as soft, yet rarely break under any circumstance, even pavement drops). 

12/7/25 Ginger (Derwent Drawing colored pencils and ArtGraf water-soluble graphite on Lenox Cotton paper;
reference photo by Bob Flor)

For historical reference: From top, oldest to newest (Apologies for the strange lighting in this image; the barrel color is brown as in the previous photos, not orange.)

Roku

 

12/4/25 Roku (reference photo by Cristina Corpuz-Martens)

I sketched this handsome Akita, Roku, as a gift for a friend. I’m pleased that Pencilvember helped me learn how to make colored pencil sketches faster (this took less than 30 minutes) while still capturing a reasonable resemblance. It makes a gift like this (not to mention commissions) less burdensome. It’s not often that a drawing challenge helps me in such a practical way. Thirty days well spent!

During the challenge, I used fun, unnatural colors to keep me from spending too much time trying to “match” reality. I have found, though, that the practice had another benefit that came out unexpectedly with Roku. Instead of using straight-up black for the nose and eyes (as I used to with most dogs before the challenge), I impulsively used Indanthrene Blue and mixed it with a little dark brown. I think the result is more interesting than black.

Pencilvember, Week 2: Truncated

Reference photo by Frank Koyama

After Pencilvember Week 1’s good times with soft Prismacolors, I changed to Faber-Castell Polychromos for Week 2. Although I had been planning weekly updates to align with my plan to use a different pencil brand each week, I’ve ended Week 2 early. Here’s why:

When I made all those colored pencil pet portraits the past couple of years, Polychromos had been my go-to, but that’s because I was going for a detailed, realistic look. The hard but highly pigmented Polychromos is ideal for that. What Polychromos is not good for, however, is speed. It’s best used in a traditional way, which is multiple, lightly applied layers – a time-consuming process. The slam-it-down method I use for speed works best with soft colored pencils.

I knew all that going in, but I wanted to challenge myself anyway, and most of these took more than my 20-minute goal – closer to 25 or 30 minutes. I’m not unhappy with the results, but they confirmed that Polychromos is not the best pencil choice when speed is of the essence. It just takes too long to build up dark values. I decided to end Polychromos week early, and I’ll choose a much softer pencil going forward.

On the upside, I’m pleased with other experiments Pencilvember is enabling me to try. Last week I mentioned in an image cutline that when my reference photos were taken in flat lighting, I used a yellow pencil to remind myself where the light would be, if it were more easily visible. This trick also works with subjects in good lighting, but when I don’t want to take the time to create contrast that would indicate the light.

12/11/23 My original sketch of Tucker on
the cover of a Field Notes notebook. The background was painted with ArtGraf water-soluble graphite.

Tucker turned out to be a fitting example of this. When I first sketched him two years ago (above, right), I painted in a dark background behind the lighted side of his face. This time, instead of trying to hastily scribble in a similar contrasting background with colored pencils, I used yellow as a shorthand to indicate the window light.

Tucker is also an excellent example of a point I brought up several months ago in my post offering tips on pet portraiture. If you have a model in good lighting or a good reference photo, the eyes of animals (as well as humans) will show a shadow of the upper eyelid. The strong, frontal light on Tucker’s face was ideal for indicating these shadows. Catching these shadows is not important if realism is not the goal, but they’re hard to resist when they are so clearly visible, which is rarely the case. (This was one of my favorite pet reference photos to work with – an unusual, challenging, three-quarter pose with beautiful natural lighting. If only all commission reference photos could be like Tucker’s!)

Pencilvember, Week 1

reference photo by Frank Koyama

In my early years of participating in drawing challenges like InkTober (which I’ve been doing annually since 2015) and Pencilvember, it was enough to simply use the challenge medium for a month without a theme. Back then, I tried to do each day’s drawing from life, which was often the most challenging part during wet autumns. Eventually I relented and started drawing from reference photos, and then it became advantageous to have a theme (like mouths or ears) so that I didn’t spend so much time looking for images. But the last few years, I’ve felt vaguely dissatisfied because I wasn’t challenged enough.

As I confirmed during InkTober last month, now I enjoy this type of challenge more when I have a specific learning goal as well as a theme. I’m finding it true this month, too, as I finish up Week 1 of Pencilvember!

I went over my 20-minute limit with Boots, but the result is my favorite tabby cat sketch so far. I often end up feeling like I belabor cat drawings trying to get enough detail to indicate their breed, but Boots came out just right in 25 minutes or so.

In fact, my goal is the same but with a colored pencil instead of a brush pen: Practice making pet portraits efficiently and expressively with less emphasis on resemblance (which had always been the goal with my time-consuming, detailed commissioned portraits). Since pencils are a slower medium than brush pens, I’m trying to finish each sketch in 20 minutes or less (instead of 10 minutes for brush pens). Although my main subject is still pets, I’m also branching out to include wild animals (another stretch, since I’m not familiar with the general proportions of wildebeests as I am with dogs!).

Colored pencils are intrinsically time consuming, so the only way to capture an expression or gesture in 20 minutes is to use the scribbly, messy hatching style I learned a few years ago from France Van Stone. I hadn’t used that method much since that time, so Pencilvember is a great opportunity to practice again.

One thing that has made the challenge especially fun also has an important purpose: I’m deliberately using vivid, unnatural hues to prevent me from falling into the “realistic” trap of trying to match the animal’s colors.

Reference photo by Frank Koyama

To really push this, I got out my favorite Camel rainbow pencil – which turns out to have an unexpected superpower! After drawing a rough contour, I color it lightly all over (except highlights) with the rainbow pencil. Then I use dark individual colored pencils to work on values. The superpower is that the rainbow pencil acts as a subtle, vari-colored “underpainting,” if you will, and I’m digging that slightly shimmery effect.

For Week 1 I used Prismacolors, one of my favorite pencils for their softness (which is ideal for speed). My plan is to use a different colored pencil brand each week.

As much as I love brush pens, it feels so good to have a pencil in my hand again!

(As with InkTober, most of my Pencilvember reference photos are from previous commissions. The exceptions are the wild animals that my brother, Frank Koyama, photographed during an expedition in Kenya last month.)

Among the most challenging reference 
photos is all-white Cuppa Joe photographed
with dim backlighting. With him and the lion
at right, photographed in flat light, I
used a yellow pencil to remind me where the
light would be if I could see it better.

Reference photo by Frank Koyama. It was interesting to
observe the ways in which the features and proportions
of domestic cats differ or are similar to this wild relative.
For example, the lion's pupils are round instead of 
marquise-shaped.

InkTober Finale

 

This year’s InkTober has been so much fun! While most of my reference photos were pets I had drawn previously with colored pencils as fundraiser commissions, a few were new, like Roz and Nemo. When friends saw me posting the portraits on Facebook, they shared photos of their pets, and I later surprised them. Nothing makes people smile like seeing sketches of their own dogs and cats.

This InkTober may have been a first in at least one way: I used the same Pentel Pocket Brush Pen for the entire 31 days, and I used a white Sakura Gelly Roll for highlights on all but one day. I thought I would use my Sailor Naginata to help with detail more than once or twice, but I didn’t. It wasn’t my intention to be so consistent, but the more I used the brush pen and Gelly Roll pairing (see below), the more I liked them for what I wanted to practice during the month: Fast (15 minutes or less), expressive portraits.

An InkTober first: Same pens all month.

Over time, I found myself becoming more accurate without measuring or blocking (the time-consuming part of the more realistic drawings I had done before). After 31 days, I now feel confident that I can offer this portrait style for commissions and make them in a timely way that also feels satisfying to me. InkTober mission accomplished!

As I always am on Oct. 31, I’m relieved that InkTober is over, even as I enjoyed every day of it. As much as I’d like to take a break from themed challenges, we all know what’s next – Pencilvember! 

The last few years when my InkTober themes were based on human faces,
I always ended with a selfie. This year I ended with a less common pet:
Timmy, the bearded dragon, who is decked out in a bow tie for his parents' wedding!