Final stages in Greyhound drawing.

Welcome back to the sequel in the creation of my Greyhound portrait.

After a good-night's sleep, I carried on by tackling the connection between girls and dog (see close-up of stage 4). This meant I had to ignore her hand.(- always a good idea to back-off until the frustration dies down).

A quick recap on the material used:

  • Mellotex paper
  • Derwent graphite pencil 2B, 3B and 8B
  • Staedler clutch pencil F and 2H
  • Chamois leather
  • Blu-Tack (kneadable eraser)

The great thing with this piece is that it seemed to take shape from the very start and flowed easily all the way through.

For stage 4 I used my clutch pencil filled with F to render the girls features and skin. Light strokes are then blended with a chamois leather, this is repeated until the right effect is achieved. Her eye was drawn with my 2B Derwent. No blending

Close up on stage 4.

Here the tongue and the connection between the dog and the girl has to be established.  

Her hair was drawn with a 3B. No blending just layering.

 Stage 4Stage 5

Stage 5: progress is made in the jacket. This is done with a flat tipped 8B Derwent pencil. Important to follow the shape and flow of the creases.

Stage 6  Stage 7

Stage 6 and 7 are where I established the shape of the head and the movement of the hair.  For these stages I used only my 3B. I got a little carried away with the jacket and the result is that I'm having to be very careful not to smudge it. Normally, I would have left the bottom part until I had the hair finished. 

Here is the finished result.

I like her hand after all, it shows youth, kindness and strength.

After finishing with the hair in stage 7, I went back and strengthened the contact shadows (where the hand touches the dog's head) as well as smoothed her skin, and... it worked!

The last missing piece was made to fit and I could sign the portrait, spray it and enter it.

"Forgotten Son"

Graphite on paper, 19x30 cm

380 Euros (20% donated)

Forgotten Son is the second piece I have entered in the CAG's Fall online show. 20% of the sale price will be donated to the Dumfries and Cumbria Greyhound Rescue.

I like to think that through my work I'll be able to help give "man's best friend" a warm safe bed.

Comments

Anonymous said…
I just love this piece! I loved it from the first moment I saw it on the digital photo. I liked it even better when I saw it in person. And I love it yet more now that it is framed and hanging on my wall. Thank you for doing it and for posting your work in progress here. Is there a story behind the title, "Forgotten Son"?
10:15 pm
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