Creating the Bernese Mountain Dogs

So this was possibly my most ambitious pet portrait commission to date! The request was to draw six Bernese Mountain Dogs, Bamburgh Castle, a rainbow over one of the dogs and paw prints in the sand (which I didn't manage to squeeze in in the end!). After working with the client and putting together many different compositions we were finally happy to get started.

This portrait was HUGE! At size 70cm x 50cm it was going to be one of my largest portraits to date so this led to my next decision. I am primarily a coloured pencil artist, however, I have been on a mission to create extremely vibrant portraits so I made the decision to complete the under-layer with Windsor and Newton designer gouache paint. This not only sped up the process ten fold but allowed me to obtain a beautifully vibrant base layer. I essentially just colour blocked with the paint and planned to add in all of the detail with coloured pencil at a later stage.

As I had never tried this technique before I was a little worried about how much paint to add. Too much may have hindered the amount of coloured pencil I could apply and with too little I may not have obtained the vibrancy I was after. The portrait is done on Pastelmat Board by Clairefontaine. It is absolutely fantastic in that it really does take a lot of punishment from the paintbrush yet remains rough enough to add pencil at a later stage; it really was perfect for this technique.

The next step was to add the detail with coloured pencil. I knew from a previous trial that I was able to go over the black paint with a light coloured pencil which was key in this portrait. I used a range of blues, purples and greys to obtain the shine on the dogs and made sure to smooth the edges. I was also able to use a white pencil on the chest to flick over the black area to creat a soft and natural look.

The pencils I used were Faber Castell Polychromos

and Derwent Lightfast, both are oil based pencils

which worked well, although, I discovered it can

then be difficult to add more paint over the top.

Next was the background, I picked out the

highlights for the castle where the sun would hit the

walls during sunrise and added details to the sand

such as rocks or reflections from puddles.

After the end of a long month of hard work I finally the completed portrait. You are not able to see from the photo but there is a slight sparkle to the sand thanks to the gold metallic paint I mixed in on the initial layer. I also added a dot of white gouache to each of their eyes to really bring them to life and added the rainbow to Bindi as she unfortunately passed away prior to this portrait. This was a huge learning curve but something I thoroughly enjoyed and will most definitely be doing again. I even have ideas to draw my own dog on the beach with the local lighthouse in the background?? Watch this space ;)

Back left to right: Bindi and Calvin

Front left to right: Bess, Darcy, Annie and Koa