Sketching Emma

I thought this week I'd let you see some sketching, using my other dog, Emma so that you can see the process I like to use.

First a photo - thankfully a ball works as a good distraction.

Using the photographic reference I faintly mark key parts of the portrait such as the proportions of the eyes and nose, to make sure to get an accurate likeness. Then I use a soft pencil, in this case a 4B and work on the darkest parts.

I then lighten the pressure to do blocks of dark shading. The sketchbook I work on creates a nice texture to the shading.

I then switch to a harder pencil such as a HB to do the lighter areas of shading.

After a few adjustments here and there the sketch is done! A larger version is available to see here.

I tried to get the model to pose with her picture- proved more difficult than I thought!