October 4, 2006
Memorial portrait: Sadie, the beagle who launched a hundred portraits
I felt so badly for my friends when their beagle Sadie died, that I wanted to do something for them. At the time, I thought it was going to be an oil pastel portrait, because I was just rediscovering this under-appreciated medium. In preparation for that portrait, I did a pencil sketch to work out the composition. The sketch captured Sadie’s expression so well that I decided to go ahead and render it fully in pencil (or “graphite” as it known in art circles to distinguish it from all the others kinds of pencils artists use).
My love of working in black and white reawoke and I got lost in the pure pleasure of building up shading with stroke after stroke of soft lead. It turned from sketch into finished drawing and the oil pastel portrait was forgotten. My friends received this portrait of Sadie instead!
Thank you, Sadie, for reminding me of the pleasures of black, white, and gray! Once I started, I couldn’t stop! The graphite doggie and kitty portraits have just kept coming — 30 years of pent-up pencil portraits!
Hi, I’m an admin for a group called Dogs close up, and we’d love to have your photo added to the group.
Comment by Flickr: Honeycorn — October 17, 2007 @ 10:59 am