- Ranger 3
More scratching on Ranger has softened his fur and blended some of the values. Some highlights scratched into the water has cleaned up the streaky look from when I initially added watercolor. Now Ranger is ready for color! - Ranger 2 - Face Detail
Face detail of Stage 2 - Ranger 2
First layer of scratching on the dog is finished. Also some re-inking in a few places to add darks back in. Watercolor on the water too. That's streaky in places, but scratching in select areas will fix that. Next steps on Ranger will be scratching/re-inking to fine-tune and build depth. Then I can add color to him. - Ranger 1 - Face Detail
Face detail of Stage 1 - Ranger 1
Early stage of a 12" x 9" portrait of Ranger the German Shepherd Reference photo provided by my client Ranger loved the water, so that's what's going on in the background. It will taper off into black at the top, but otherwise it will look very much like the water technique I developed on "Determination" See it here: www.annran.com/website/gallery/pet-portraits/dogs/determination - Off Duty? 5
Almost finished ... Since the last scan, I scratched to bring back highlights on his fur, added a lighter edge on the tennis ball and the highlights in his eyes, and worked on the white parts of his fur a little bit. And miracle of miracles, I used the "Auto Color" adjustment in Photoshop and it did a pretty awesome job of fixing the scan. I usually can't rely on that setting, but I'm sure happy it worked this time! - Off Duty? 4
With color (watercolor). I didn't spend a ton of time on color-correcting this scan. The dog looks pretty accurate, but the water isn't quite right. I'll take more time when I scan the final. At any rate, in the home stretch at this point. Next:scratching to add highlights on the dog, and separate him from the background. - Off Duty? 3
Border Collie is all scratched, ready for color! That will help pop him out from the background. He won't have spooky eyes either. After adding color, I'll scratch as needed. - Off Duty? 2
Still working on scratching the dog, but I've started adding a water background. Read the story about the water here: When You Want Different Water - Off Duty? 1
5" x 7" scratchboard of a Border Collie: "Off Duty?" because anyone who knows Border Collies knows they're working even when they're playing. - Off Duty? - Final
Finished! 5" x 7" scratchboard (Ampersand Scratchbord), with watercolor and some India ink for re-inking & drawing long, black hairs. From my own reference photo taken at a dog play day many years ago. - Jacob 2
The drawing of Jacob is all scratched, ready for color. - Jacob 1
5" x 5" scratchboard drawing of Jacob the Chimp. The back story: a call went out to members of the Society of Animal Artists to create art of Chimp Haven chimps, with the artists granting permission for image use on merchandise to benefit the chimps. Reference photo courtesy Chimp Haven. - Jacob (Final)
Jacob's portrait is finished. I love his crooked little smile! 5" x 5" scratchboard, with watercolor Scratched with a #16 X-Acto. Color is minimal - a purplish grey for everything, except brown for his eyes. About Jacob: https://chimphaven.org/chimps/jacob/ - Jack 8 (Final)
Jack's finished portrait. 7" x 5", scratchboard with watercolor. Everything except the whiskers was scratched with a #16 X-Acto blade. I used a Slice ceramic cutting tool for the whiskers. The color in this image is more accurate than the previous one, it leans more toward magenta tones.