New page in the title line :-)

I just finished my first black haired (and bits of white) animal commission. What an opportunity for learning it turned out to be. I saw her wonderful HUGE file photographs (Thank you http://www.chrisusher.com/about-chris.html for the outstanding photographs provided) and thought , "YES, I have this". Well suddenly I was on a learning curve I didn't even know had been  looming. Black fur isn't as easy as it makes itself out to be I'll have you know:-)

As usual I started with the eyes after the initial outline. Then I moved to her luxuriant coat............. baddaboom. Do I build up with my lower 'B' pencils or do I go straight for the high 'b's softer yet darker lead. Interesting conundrum I decided the best course of action was to try both on a different sheet. The lowB build up and the high B flat out, yield similar visual results BUT and this is a big BUT, the softer lead  of a 7B pencil lifts right off the page if you touch it. So when I came back to my sample sheet after lunch I found a big ole finger print, my finger print in the middle of my 7B sample. Huh!! who'da thunk it? There you go. So lesson learned for a more stable permanent and dense mark on your paper, work it up. Your shadows will thank you:-)

So this is Star, my darker shades teacher. She is a 19 year old former feral kitty who currently resides in Virginia.

Extreme ear-tipping.

I went a got myself a new page in the title line works in progress. You can follow the evolution of portraits as they come to life. Star's story is my first entry.