Portrait in Stages

	1) This is the earliest stage of a portrait. At this point I've looked over all the photos of my subject, decided on a pose, and roughed in the basic outline. Then the very first thing I do -- and I begin each portrait this way -- is draw the eyes. True, the overall proportions and form have to be accurate, but it's in the eyes where the individual's personality lives. Look at your pet: if he were covered with a cloth that had eye holes cut out of it, so all you could see were the eyes shining through... wouldn't you still recognize him? Sure you would. It's the same with a portrait; if the eyes aren't exactly right, the portrait won't look like that special pet, no matter how accurate the rest of it may be.
2) The next step is to begin adding some areas of dark and light fur, to give the animal's face some shape, to start to bring the portrait to life. Again, I usually concentrate on the area around the eyes here, and work outward from there. The pen & ink work here must be very precise, with tiny lines and dots. The fur around the eyes is quite fine and usually much shorter than the body fur, so it requires exacting pen technique and a very fine pen point. I am currently using Rapidograph pens, and at this stage I'll be using a triple-aught (3x0) .25 point.
	3) In this phase we can begin to see our subject's personality and unique character start to show. Although many animals' faces and bodies have basically similar configurations, there is so much variation from one to the next that it's extremely important here to note the underlying bone structure that defines the individual's look. Does she have a high forehead? A long or short nose? Sharp cheekbones? These begin to show up in the variations of shading that I add at this point. It's critical here to keep the pen strokes light and add tone and texture very gradually. Pen & ink is one of the most demanding media because there is no way to erase a mistake; you can always add more ink to make an area darker, but you can't take it away to lighten it up!
4)This is the midway point in the ink portion of the portrait procedure. Here's where my subject starts to take on some life and three-dimensional quality. The areas that I marked out lightly in the early stages now begin to be filled in little by little, and at this point I must be very careful to check my reference photos continually to make sure that I'm staying true to the look and feel of this particular subject. Nuances of the pose start to come out here, as the shadows and angles highlight muscles, bone structure, ear set, markings, and overall feeling of the subject.
	5) Now we come to the stage in the drawing that's the most time-consuming by far (especially for a predominantly black or dark subject, such as Katie!). This is really the "make or break" point for a portrait. If it doesn't look just right at this stage, it never will -- then I would have to throw away all the work I'd done to this point and start over. Fortunately, that doesn't happen very often! Here I'm filling in all the dark and light areas, taking care not to overdo it in any one spot. I use several different pen types and sizes for the various types of fur, from very fine for the soft face hair to thicker and broader (such as a Rapidograph single-aught .35 nib) for the coarser body fur.
6) This is the last of the ink drawing. Here's where the smallest details are added - little freckles of dark fur on the muzzle, particular sprouts of fur around the ears, lighter patches for eyebrows, and so on. Note that on her nose the ink is added by tiny dots rather than by lines the way it is for fur. Different textures require different processes, or the result wouldn't look realistic.
	7) This is the first of a series of watercolor washes that I apply over the completed pen & ink drawing. Some people prefer black and white work, and don't want the watercolor added, and that's a very appealing look as well. Most of my clients, however, like the warmth, softness and realism that the color adds. Watercolor is a translucent medium, so the ink detail shows through the color nicely. Here we see Katie's warm golden-brown eyes come alive, and her soft shiny fur takes on a depth and tone that adds life to the ink details.
8) Finally, I add several more layers of watercolor washes to the completed ink drawing, including some background color to bring out the coloring in the portrait. Theseare the final touches that make the portrait look and feel like your real live friend, rather than just a flat sketch... and then it's ready to send off to you!

Would you like to see a cool animated .GIF image of a work-in-progress?