Nose to the Ground

 

11/3/26 Derwent Drawing and Prismacolor pencils in S&B Zeta sketchbook (photo reference)

On one of my visits to Thornton Creek Channel last summer, I snapped a few photos of a young woman walking two dogs (my trick whenever I see people walking toward me that I might like to photograph is to wait until they’ve passed me, then turn around; I especially like to snap dogwalkers this way). She couldn’t seem to get them moving because one or the other or both kept stopping for a sniff. I’ve never walked a dog, but I imagine it’s like this more often than not.

I started with the pale blue just to block in the main subjects, so it
doesn't show much in the sketch. The darkest pencil at the bottom
is Derwent Drawing Midnight (6710), which isn't even part of my
Pencilvember palette. I have been keeping it in my daily-carry 
kit for a while, though, because it's a favorite for dark values
without being black.

Technical notes: When using reference photos, I prefer to choose scenes that I might actually sketch from observation because they make better practice. This one doesn’t really qualify because it would have been almost impossible to capture both dogs and their human to this level of detail in real time, but it appealed to me – both the subject matter and the composition. You can probably tell that I became more interested in the dog at left than any other part of the sketch! Nose down, tail up: I see dogs in this gesture often, so it’s worth practicing.

I want to call attention to the subtle modulations of value on that dog (and also on the figure, though less finessed). Even without much detail, I hope it reads well. This is exactly why I love colored (and all) pencils so much: You can’t do this with markers! Or how about that sketch I made the other day of our foggy morning? Impossible with markers!