Two White Jack Russells

 

These two little scoundrels are Katy and Anni - a pair of very cute jack russells who are getting the pastel treatment on 12 x 16" beige pastel paper. Although it may not appear so on screen, this original photo is actually out of focus, but as it's so full of life I used other photos to obtain further details. I drew them closer together and blocked in the light areas with a large white soft pastel. Then I added dark grey and purple to the shadows on their coats and blended it all together. Pinks were drawn into the ears, eyes and tongue before applying the dark colours using pastel pencils for the finer detail work. I used browns, purples and black in a couple of layers, blending the colours with the pencils themselves to keep the  work sharp. By this stage they were taking shape but looked like they were floating so I grounded them with shadows on the grass. Initially I was just going to hint at bits of grass around their paws but it looked a bit odd so I put more greens, browns and yellows on the background. I refined the shadows by adding more purple and put more blue into their coats and Anni's blue eye. A few more refinements to the details and shadows and the portrait is now complete.