Pet Portraits

Hi there!

Reviewing the year

With the end of the year fast approaching I realised that it had been fairly quiet for me having only had a few commissions. This hasn’t bothered me in any way since I have used this time to practice as much as possible with different art mediums. I went back to oils, tried watercolours and enjoyed pastels and coloured pencils. I also made my first YouTube videos and launched my website! So all in all, a quite busy year with all these projects on the go simultaneously.

I love doing realistic work and enjoy the visual satisfaction of making a flat drawing come to life on canvass or paper. It is therefore a recent evolution in my art career where I have developed a preference for coloured pencils and pastels.

Although the wet mediums such as oils and watercolours are also satisfying to do and perhaps more sought after by collectors, it seems that more and more artists are tending towards the dry mediums. This may be for the same reasons that I have – the results are more immediate and less messy. I can also take my materials anywhere, set up in no time and don’t have to worry about fumes, spillage or waiting for a piece to dry before handling. I can also apply the kind of detail I love doing and let the subject come to life!

With this in mind, I’d like to share what I’m currently busy with and the techniques I use in order to obtain certain results.

How do I do it?

I am naturally gifted but not academically trained in art and have a tendency to paint or draw what I see. This may be a good or a bad thing, but it does take me a little longer than most artists to get to my final creation.

Additionally, I have the ability to see ‘hidden’ colours – the tones and values that may be ‘invisible’ to the casual onlooker. This makes it difficult for me to teach others since my process is so complicated that it makes it almost impossible to demonstrate. I would, for instance, know that the basic colour that everyone else would see is, say, orange. However, there are small nuances in the orange that may be pink, or violet, or even scarlet and various shades of yellow. I cannot explain to someone how to ‘see’ these colours unless they have that ability. However, even with this in mind, I will have some videos on my Patreon site in the future showing what I do and how to train your eye to see those ‘invisible’ colours.

So what’s on my easel?

Well, I’m currently busy with a study of a friend’s little Dachshund called Bobby.

He is one of a family of seven rescue doggies owned by friends of ours. Bobby is really sweet and even though he is one of the smallest in the pack, he seems to think he’s their leader. What is really entertaining is when the larger dogs are playing roughly and he cannot participate, he would start barking and run to the front of the house. This would entice all of them to head to the gate. That is when he would stop and turn around leaving the others to carry on to the fence!

When I took the photo of him he had done just that and had hopped onto the chair, well satisfied with himself. It was as if he knew I was aware of his game and it made me feel like he was smiling smugly. This attitude was a fitting display of his self-imposed rank and an iconic representation of his personality.

I also thought that the striking colours against his dark fur with the dash of blue of his owner’s t-shirt would make a lovely study. Also, the silky material of the chair and the rough texture of the towel would be a lovely challenge.

Preparing the drawing

I transfer the photograph to my IPad and do some editing in a program called Procreate before I begin. I crop the photo to where the composition is pleasing and add or remove anything that would improve it. However when I’m only doing a study I generally don’t make too many adjustments or additions.

I then use a projector to save time to transfer the photo onto the paper. I have a very old one that was gifted to me by my son’s friend and it has been very useful. It does not allow a lot of detail but gives me a general layout that I can use.

I use Clairefontein Pastelmat paper for my drawings. This is a very forgiving medium to work on when using coloured pencils or pastels. I tape it to a board, set it up in front of the projector and trace the photo roughly in pencil. I use a putty eraser to remove any dark pencil lines and will usually end up with the ‘ghost’ of the tracing on the paper.

Keeping organised

I have a small desk easel that I have modified to hold the board and tape glassine to the board so that my hand does not touch the drawing. Glassine is a transparent, smooth paper that prevents damage to the pigment from the oils on my hands.

I also keep a sheet of rough-textured paper and a folded paper towel under the easel to either clean off the tips of the pencils or the blender, or to sharpen a blunted point. Sharpening the core of the pencil on the paper helps to extend the life of the pencil.

I pick out the main colours in the reference photo from my range of coloured pencils comprising of Caran d’Ache Luminance, Derwent Lightfast and Polychromos. I arrange them in colour combinations in trays on my desk. This keeps me organised while working and makes it easier for me to see which colours I would need.

Starting the drawing

Every artist has a different way of starting a drawing. Some start at the top and others fill colour all over the drawing. I start with laying down the lightest shades of colour that I see, add the tonal values and highlights and deepen the shadows. While doing this I start adding the details and endeavour to create a three dimensional feeling to the drawing. I will also, at this point try and play with the light and shadow to enhance the subject and perhaps deviate from the reference photo. I may also take some artistic licence when deciding what remains in the final piece and what may be added.

Blending Coloured Pencils

Coloured pencil blenders come in many forms. The correct use of blenders can also make or break a drawing. There are also many opinions about which ones are the best and which ones work on what type of paper. Some artists prefer to blend with the coloured pencils and sometimes I do that as well, however I have learnt the value of a good blender.

When I first started, I worked on watercolour paper and found the Caran d’Ache blender perfect. It made the drawing process so much easier and the blending effortless. However, I wanted to do more layers and found that Pastelmat paper had a far better texture for layering many colours over each other.

However, the rough texture of the Pastelmat paper required far more layers before any blending can be done. So after doing some research on what other artists do, I found an artist called Lisa from Lachri Fine Art (https://www.youtube.com/user/Lachri/videos ). She showed how to use odourless mineral spirits (OMS) for the first few layers of blending while retaining the tooth of the paper. I followed her advice and now mostly use it to blend those initial layers. I can then effortlessly add more layers than what I was able to on the watercolour paper.

All subsequent layers will have to be blended with either the coloured pencils or with a colourless blender. Even with many layers the tooth of the paper is still too rough to use the Caran d’Ache blender.

So I tried various other blenders. I would have loved to be able to obtain the Brush & Pencil’s powdered blender, but since it is not currently available in South Africa, I resorted to trying those that I could buy locally. That was when I discovered that the Derwent blender (not the burnisher) and found that it worked exceptionally well on Pastelmat. I learnt that the trick was to use it very lightly in the middle layers since it would become ‘powdery’ and move the colours effortlessly over each other. This allowed one to keep layering over the blended areas. I finish by using the Caran d’Ache blender for the final blending which provides a smooth finish to the overall project and now I won’t do it any other way.

Keeping it sharp

When doing a lot of detail it is important to keep your pencils sharp. There are many types of sharpeners and some do a better job than others. I have tried a few but eventually found that the very affordable Mont Marte sharpener works well in between major sharpening. I keep it in a re-purposed cream cheese tub into which the shavings go. While I’m busy with a pencil that has enough core showing but the tip is blunt, I would sharpen it on the side on a piece of rough paper to save the core. However, before I start work for the day I usually sharpen all the blunt pencils with the crank handle sharpener. I bought this one at a local store and it has served me well, is easy to clean and I keep it sharp by sharpening graphite pencils with it every now and then.

So, there you now have my process for how I work with coloured pencil. Check out my YouTube channel https://www.youtube.com/@estellelaubscherarts4853 for some of the pastel work I did. Even though this was done in pastels, it still shows my process of working with colour. You can also follow me on Facebook to see the latest photos of what I’m busy with over there.

My Supplier

Living in South Africa has it downside to ordering art products online and ordering from companies abroad can be prohibitively expensive. However, we do have a wonderful company here that goes through all the trouble of providing some of the top-of-the-range art products for us. The company is called Art Savings Club and we can order online from them locally. They have provided excellent service so far and can only compliment them on their fast delivery service and huge product range.

Studio assistant

As usual, my trusty studio assistant, Nicci, is at her post. She would be either under my desk at my feet, behind my chair or on her blanket. While she is patient while I’m working, when it comes to 4pm she starts getting restless. She would sit and stare at me until I take notice of her and this is her way of telling me it’s time to turn off the computer and play or go for a walk.