Some dogs of course just touch your heart. I’ve been tablet drawing and have an idea of what I want but still have a ways to go. To me the most important thing is to try to capture the personality of the dog. Digital sketching gets a little bizarre with animal fur brushes. Tablet drawing works great if you have a plan. A good plan is to keep it as simple as possible and everything to a minimum. I think I’m looking for something in between a traditional portrait with the flare of digital. Then if I could master lighting, that’s where I want to be.
I’m not at all happy with the below image. I will do it over but I just take a black and white shot to get an idea of the values. As you can see, there are more problems than values. It’s a mixed up mess with wrong brushes used for what I’m looking for. There are blacks in here that are way too dark and the piece has no continuity. His beautiful eyes are lost. The next version will begin with line art and then use selections for 4 values in grey scale to use as my flats. Onward and don’t give up.
Painting Mexico 