28: My dog Bertha, step-by-step!

I'm back in Malaysia trying to settle paperwork and visa documentation! This is just after spending a whole 5 days lugging all my stuff (how on earth did I manage to accumulate so much ALREADY?!) to the car and back and then a 40 minute drive to the village and 40 minutes back, as I was moving into a new rental home in the village I'm hoping to live in! So it's been hectic to say the least. Have barely had time to think!

But today I finally was able (in between a million zillion phone calls in search of documents, translators, lawyers oh dear) to a bit of drawing. And as I'm missing my dogs, I pulled a photo of one of them out and sat down to play with the watercolour pencils I bought when I got here. And I've managed to scan a few steps of the progress too!

Going backwards, here's the final  drawing:

With water added to the pencils and then a final touch-up with the colours minus water (to darken the shadows mainly) and with a B pencil. I am actually quite pleased with the end result despite the fact that it's not exactly quite the way I thought it would look :)

This was the almost-final pencil stage, before adding water. I found it quite difficult to work with such soft pencils (I'm used to hard, fine sharp ones!) on textured paper even though it was quite finely textured. But I didn't go into too much detail as I wasn't sure if the water would just wash it all away! I also had to alter her paw, as I first drew it a bit too short.

And here's the pencil sketch. I'd already added a bit of colour when I thought of scanning in the progress, but you can still see the beginning rough sketch.

And finally, this is the photo I used as reference! Ok, so I made a few mistakes, but I think I managed to capture her personality and that's what has made me happy with it. Next I'm going to have to do her sister or there's going to be a huge upset in the family :D

Brown Bertha Card at Zazzle! :D

Comments

[Shirley]

Thanks for sharing your "work in progress." It's a great sketch/painting and I enjoyed your description of your deliberations using the wc pencils.

[r.e.wolf]

Beautiful work - I don't know how you manage it with all that additional stress! And what a beautiful pup - no wonder you miss her!

[TeriC]

It is just gorgeous!!
You have unknowingly joined our "Animal Wednesday" :)

[Sandy]

What a sweet sketch Bertha looks like a sweetheart.

[mrana]

Thank you Shirley, Ryan, Teri and Sandy for the encouraging comments!

Ryan, yes I miss my babies terribly!

Teri ... ooo I like your Animal Wednesdays, I'm going to join you once I've settled down :D

Sandy, she really is a sweet dog, very pretty and delicate :)

[Angela Muss]

Realy nice process and very attractive result, I love the colours that you used, thanks for sharing :)

[wagonized]

Oh yes!! Thank you for posting the progress -- what a lesson it is to see the different stages. Beautiful drawing. And i love how you left the grass in negative space. Clever!

[Webgrrl]

Oh where in Malaysia are you? Didnt realise you were there.. you live there? I was born there :) and lived there till i was teenager.. Went back there for first time in 23yrs in 2006 for 2 days..

[Jennifer Lawson]

What a beautiful drawing. Thank you for showing the work in progress using your watercolor pencils. I'm still trying to figure those out.

Isn't is amazing how much we can miss our dogs. I will be moving to Bali for two months in November and Sophie will be staying here in Maine. I'm already sad.

[Serena]

Beautiful job, Mariana.....I love how you rendered her and the eye is magnificent! I hope things settle down quickly for you and that you will be reunited with your dogs very soon.

[MD]

Lovely drawing.

[andreaj]

Oh my gosh, this is gorgeous Mariana. I LOVE the colour of the finished piece. Brilliant.

[Bearuh]

I love your dog artwork!