Sophie the Staffy-Rhodesian Ridgeback

This is Sophie, a lively Staffy-Rhodesian Ridgeback. Her owners sent me loads of photos but this was their favourite expression. The size is 16 x 12" and the medium is pastel. I started by sketching her face onto Ingres Pastel paper. Base colours of white, yellow ochre, dark brown, black and pink were blocked in to start with taking care to get the features in the right place. Then I built up the detail from the top left to avoid smudging the drawing and when I was happy with the shaping and general colour values I went over it again with finer detailed pencil pastels, adding whiskers and darkening the eyes and areas around her nose. Her smooth coat really works well with pastels and there's a surprising amount of orange added in to lift the colour!