Herbie

gorgeous coloured pencil portrait of the delightful St. Bernard Herbie. they are fantastic dogs for all their size they are amongst the gentlest of breeds, this one is just beautiful Lin, super drawing, love his big full on head

He is such a big dog, his head came forward and all I could see was this soft licky head. it's almost a cariacature, but his head was so dominant.

Thanks Ros

I know just what you mean about them having soft licky heads, we meet one occasionally when I am out walking my black Lab Rosie, and it always steals the show, it comes rushing over and is simply irresistable

He looks a bundle of cuddles! I like the unusual angle too :)

just love it.

Hi Lin, great portrait, how did you apply the pencils to get the depth of colour, or did you just use the individual pencil colours. What was the paper like. Did you have any waxing problems?

Another stunner here!

Lovely portrait. I love these dogs.

Many questions Peter - and welcome too. I use a nice heavy paper that will take lots of layers - that is the secret. Start with really sharp points and very light layers, usually do tonally first. Then build up gradually. Colours can be laid over each other like oil painting glazes, but the secret is not to be too heavy handed and fill the paper's tooth too quickly. i only usually get wax bloom with Coloursoft but I use my fingers (clean of course) with a bit of soft cotton over the end and 'polish' with one finger. It does remove the bloom and although great for shiny apples or still life items can make 'spoil' the effects of hair and fur. So I find I do it and then lay very thin layer of strokes with a VERY sharp pencil to bring the texture back. being so thin the lines do not have a bloom.