- Deputy Gregory & Me
Deputy Gregory and me, with a print of the Ronin drawing. Deputy Gregory was Ronin's former handler. I took the reference photo for the drawing when he and Ronin were at a fund-raising event and wanted him to have a print of the drawing. - Detail of Ronin 4
Here's a close-up of one section (from the "Ronin 4" photo), so you can see the different textures that go into it. On the right section, in the middle, is the first layer of scratching. Around that is a layer of stippling that goes on top of the scratching. I need to finish stippling that center area. On the left, I've done all the stippling and then knocked it back back with light scratching. Now that area needs a little more stippling to fill in gaps and then more scratching to blend it. - Detail of Ronin 7
Close up of Ronin's feet/legs & surrounding area from the "Ronin 7" stage - K9 Ronin
7" x 5", $55 12" x 9", $95 - K9 Yukon - #1
Almost done with the scratching to the point where I can add color. The left side of his face needs to be scratched, then I'll ink to bring back dark areas, then add color. I'll also layer more fur over his "Sheriff" collar, but have to wait to do that until I have the color down first, so the fur can overlap that. - K9 Yukon - #1
Just getting started ... Plenty left to do at this point, but good progress. - K9 Yukon - #3
All scratched - ready for color - K9 Yukon - #5
Not quite done, but really, really close. Needs watercolor over some of the scratched areas, then select scratching to finish the portrait. Compare this one to the previous image where the portrait was much rougher. The scratching has helped to blend & soften the fur and tones. This stage is lighter, but the last pass with watercolor will bring back some contrast and color. - K9 Yukon - Final
The finished portrait 10" x 8" scratchboard with watercolor - Ronin & Me
- Ronin - Reference Photo
My reference photo of K9 Ronin - taken at an Sacramento Sheriff K9 Association event in 2014. - Ronin 1
Very early stages of this drawing . . . Ronin will be the easy part, that's why I started working on the car first. I wanted to figure that out before I started on Ronin. I'm going for a sketchy, "blueprint" effect for the line work that's outside of the full-render zone, with a transition between. Ronin will be in color, everything else will be black, white or grey. - Ronin 2
More progress on the car. That "STAY AWAY" lettering took a while to get right, and I'm knocking it back with a tattoo needle. There's still a lot of "sketchy" stuff going on - just to block things in. That's the beauty of scratchboard, I can tidy all that up as I go along. There's plenty of blending work to do where the drawing shifts from positive to negative, and that section under his paws will take some time. And THEN I can start on Ronin! Since he's in front, I want to have all the underlying work done, so I can layer his fur on top - Ronin 3
Starting to scratch Ronin now. There are some areas of the car that still need work: the moulding at the top of the door, the window frame on the right, and that entire part under his feet, but the rest is done. I knocked back the linework in the negative space areas with a warm grey Pitt marker. It was too contrast-y before, I like it better now. - Ronin 4
The car is done, other than that part under Ronin's feet. The left side of it needs a little more blending, the right side needs more stippling and then blending.