Colored Pencil Pet Portrait of Gabi

Here is Gabi, I was asked to create her portait in colored pencil for her parents holiday gift. I am working on 8x10" blue/gray rag mat board. I like the subtle color and texture of the board against her black fur. Notice the white lines on the top of her head, those are made with a sgraffito or embossing tool (something that looks like this). I press the tool into the paper where I want the lines to be. When I color over the lines with colored pencil, the embossed lines remain the color of the paper. This makes it much easier than trying to add light colored lines later on.

I began with Gabi's eyes, nose and face because they are the most important features to get correct. Moving on, I worked mostly with black colored pencil at first to establish the dark areas and the different areas of texture in the fur.

Black dogs are difficult to draw, you have to look closely in order to be able to add not only different values but also different colors into the fur. Besides using various shades of warm grays, I also used shades of blue, purple and browns.  

 I wanted to add a background that wasn't distracting to Gabi. In the photo I worked from, Gabi was sitting on the grass so I decided to subtly add a grassy area beneath her.