Dog & Cat Colored Pencils Finished WIP

This portrait was for my mom and her fiance for Christmas. The dog, Maxwell, is a cockerspaniel and the cat, named Cat, is a cat with an unusual extra toe on each paw. This was my first time drawing a dog or a cat for that matter. Most of my animal drawings consist of birds and mainly eagles. This is also probably my second portrait using colored pencils. The colored pencils used are Prisma and the board was just a plain tan colored board from Hobby Lobby. Hope you enjoy this new work in progress that I finished.


First I started with the cat. I usually always start left to right as to not smear what you've drawn. But I figured the cat would be the easier, so I went with that. As usual I started with the eyes. Colored pencils I used for the eyes were 1. Deco Blue, 2. Jade Green, 3. Marine Green, and obviously white. For the outside of the eyes I used 1. Indigo Blue, 2. Cool Grey 70%, 3. Black. I started by coloring(painting if you prefer) with the lightest colored pencil for the darkest area, which was the corners and outlines of the cats eyes. I also colored the white highlights in the cats eyes first. I used about medium pressure. You always want to put down a "wash" of color under the black. This gives the black a more real look and doesn't look as bad as just putting down plan black. It's always easier to do a dark color over a light heavy wash. White even works okay, but you have to work harder with it. You get nice blends the heavier you get, but obviously harder to correct.


Here are the eyes finished with the process I described above.


Here I finished the nose and started with the fur on the cat. For the nose I used 1. Deco Pink, 2. Terra Cotta, 3. White. After putting down a wash with medium pressure of Deco Pink I lightly used Terra Cotta in the shaded parts of the nose. On Deco Pink Terra Cotta can get dark and messy quick. I would then use Deco Pink to blend in the Terra Cotta. And use white to lighten the reflection area on the nose. I used the same steps with the outside of the nose as with the outside of the eyes.

On the fur I used 1. Cool Grey 50%, 2. Cool Grey 70%, 3. Indigo Blue, 4. White, 5. touches of Goldenrod on the snout. With White and Cool Grey 50 I mapped out the white fur areas and the dark fur areas using line strokes to mimic hair.


I would then use Cool Grey 70 to darken the dark grey fur areas. After I got those laid out I'd take the indigo blue and with medium pressure put washes where black would be. Then I go backwards with the Cool Grey 70 and use line strokes into the indigo blue... down to the Cool Grey 50.


And here is the cat finished. Next we'll move on to the dog.


For the dog I used 1. Goldenrod, 2. Burnt Ochre, 3. Light Umber, 4. Dark Umber, 5. Black, 6. White. I used the same steps as with the cat, starting light and working to dark. I believe with the nose and eyes I started with Burnt Ochre and worked to Dark Umber. Heavy pressure was used with each step getting darker. I left the highlight areas the board color and blended the white into the dark of the nose. After putting black in the nose I went back with Dark Umber to get some brownish color into it. I also used strokes of goldenrod to lay out the dark areas in his hair and obviously white for the white fur.


Here I worked to the left ear to the chest. I then show you the steps I took with the hair on the right ear. You can see I put a wash of Goldenrod where the dark areas will be. I used about a medium pressure. Remember I want heavy colored pencil on the board by the time I get to the darkest color which gives it the nice blending effect.


After laying out washes of goldenrod I did washes of white for the highlights. I will not keep these white at the end, as I don't want the effect of white hair in his ears. Also keep in mind the washes I do here are more strokes than washes, as to keep the look of hair going. I also started to add Burnt Ochre to the golden rod where the darkest areas will be. I then went back with goldenrod and used strokes on the edges of the Burnt Ochre.


Here I added Light Umber to the dark areas and used the Burnt Ochre and Goldenrod on the edges with strokes. I also start to use strokes of Goldenrod into the white colored pencils where the lighter areas will be.


And here is the finished piece. The final steps of the ear was adding Dark Umber to the darkest areas of the hair. Then going back over the Dark Umber with strokes of goldenrod to dull down the Dark Umber.

Hope you guys enjoy this as I enjoyed working on it.