Custom portrait of sheltie/border collie mix painting using pastels

When I was approached to paint this portrait of Kara, I was astonished to see the long fur on her very erect ears. I was thrilled at the chance to draw a dog with such a charming appearance and wonderful colors. She will truly be missed by her loving family and I am honored to have been chosen to create such a touching lasting memory of a dear loyal companion.

Kara

Shetland Sheepdog/Border Collie mix

8x10

pastel

COMMISSION

Border Collie Portrait in pastel

It seems I forgot to post an update of this finished pet portrait commission; my apologies to my followers!!

This charming and playful dog is actually a border collie/German shepherd cross. As a pup, she was rescued after being hit by a vehicle and suffered a broken leg. When she was well enough to be adopted, she was lucky to have found a very loving home in Minnesota (her new owner drove over 14 hours to get her).

Now that she is all grown up, her owner wanted to portray the boundless energy, charisma and charm of her best friend with this unique portrait. Believe it or not, a total of 5 photos were used to create this composition, which included replacing the head on the body with one from another photo.

 I hope you enjoyed watching this portrait develop as much as I enjoyed creating it.

"Izabel"
Border Collie/German Shepherd Portrait
18" x 14"
pastel

Border Collie-Labrador Cross Portrait

This is Rosie's portrait now complete with paws. Drawing dimensions are 11" x 14", graphite pencil on Fabriano Artistico paper.

More black fur!

Thank goodness I have several of the 8B pencils on hand! I keep one that is blunt, one that is sharpened to a fine point and yet another that has the lead sharpened somewhere in between. I find this really helpful when working on different areas of really dark fur such as the one this black Labrador/border collie cross is sporting! Perhaps I'll need to switch mode soon and start working on the grass in the background...

Rosie coming to life!

After spending much of the day working on this drawing, I managed to finish the facial features of this pretty border collie/Labrador mix. Drawing the fur on the muzzle is definitely the most time consuming part since each strand of fur measures only 0.5 to 1.0 mm long! Add to the fact that several layers of different grades of pencil are slowly added, one at a time. Considering this, drawing the rest of the dog should be smooth sailing from now on right? I sure hope so!

Different approach

I'm tackling this portrait using a systematic approach; starting on the top and working left to right, making my way downwards. I generally work this way when I have a background to do, rather than start with the main features of the subject (eyes, nose, mouth, etc).

Next pet portrait commission...

What happened to my scanner?? Gosh, I do apologize for the poor quality. I'm assuming it is because I've used a light "H" pencil and it is not being picked up very well on the white paper.
Although perhaps hard to tell at this stage, this dog portrait is of a border collie/Labrador mix.