The Pet Learning Playground

 

1/10/24 Oliver (reference photo by Theresa Thibodeau)

After I surpassed my goal of raising $300 for Dog Gone Seattle, I was still having fun, so I kept going. Most of the pet portraits shown here were commissioned as part of the fundraiser, and a couple were gifts.

As I’ve said in previous posts, these small portraits are teaching me not only about my animal subjects but also about the different media I’m using. I generally think of urban sketching as my primary educational playground because it’s what I do most often, but I also don’t spend much time on any single urban sketch. The pet drawings, though small, are taking a bit longer (usually an hour or more), and at the comfort of my desk, I’m encouraged to explore and learn.

1/9/24 Kenny (reference photo by Bobbi Letsinger)

Kenny (at left), the only full-body dog here, was an interesting anatomy lesson. I found that my human life-drawing practice was strangely applicable at times. Kenny’s strong, muscular neck, for example, has a tubular structure, which is how I learned to see and draw human necks and thighs.

Skuta and Momo, the two black cats, gave me the biggest workout in this bunch! Black animals are super challenging to show their forms. As I did with a black dog previously, I first made an underpainting with a black Viarco ArtGraf Tailor Shape block (see below), then finished with Faber-Castell Polychromos pencils. Their shiny fur has some reflection, but the lighting in the photo wasn’t the best. Also weird was that even though the two kitties were sitting together, Skuta’s eyes were in direct light, so his pupils were dilated, while Momo’s were not. One of them must be magical!

1/13/24 Skuta and Momo (reference photo by Marianne Sao)

Underpainting for Skuta and Momo

1/14/24 Frida (reference photo by Mary Kay Hardcastle)

Just when I thought I had figured out canine noses and nostrils, Frida, the pug, came along! Her nose defies everything I thought I knew. She gave me an opportunity, though, to try a tool I had almost forgotten about: the plastic palette that came in the Caran d’Ache mixed media botanical set. I sometimes apply patches of watercolor pencil pigment to scrap paper and use that like a watercolor “palette” (I did that for Watson, the spotted dog, with unusual coloring that was challenging to mix). But that seems wasteful, since most of the pigment gets tossed with the scrap paper.

With the plastic palette, which has a textured surface, little pigment is needed. I wanted a wash of a pale tan hue for Frida’s fur, and I needed to blend two Museum Aquarelle pencils for the color I wanted. It was fast and easy to do on the palette and wasted very little. (The Cd’A palette is not necessary, by the way; I bet any piece of textured plexi would do and would be better than a paper palette.)

Caran d'Ache palette

1/10/24 Watson (reference photo by Theresa Thibodeau)

Almost all these portraits bring together Museum Aquarelle and Polychromos pencils – a combo I hadn’t used much before I began this portrait series – and I save the eyes for a black 02 Uni Pin fineliner pen. I used to draw eyes with a black Polychromos, but a fine technical pen is easier for tiny details, and ink appears wetter and shinier than pencil.

Although I’d rather be sketching outdoors, one benefit of these harshly cold, wet winter days is that I can use tools like the palette that I would otherwise not use in the field. I can also mix more media than I usually carry. Drawing pets from photos turns out to be a pretty good learning playground, too.

1/15/24 Bialy (reference photo by Rob Danielson)