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Description
Less of a tutorial and more of a guide... This is how I approach my pet portraits! You may need to download the file.

Step 1: Loose gesture drawing. The point here isn’t anatomical perfection, but a FUN POSE! I sometimes draw TONS of these before I like one.

Step 2: Clean up stage 1. I’m thinking about my general shape language at this point

Step 3: Refine. At this point, I’m paying closer attention to my references and trying to pin point what shape language is in the actual DOG or ANIMAL I’m drawing. Note the huge difference in face and muzzle shape.

Step 4: Revison. I take a second close look at the animal. In this case, D’oh! I realized I was mentally phoning in the breed as a female, and my dog is a boy. Check for more elements I want to push, like the curvature of the spine, more puffed out chest, stockier legs.

Note: All of those 4 stages are done VERY quickly. But it’s important to try and capture your mistakes during the sketch phase and re-draw as necessary.

Step 5: rough color. I set the line art to multiply, and lasso the general shape. I paint in my basic color shapes, and erase into it to strengthen the form.

Step 6: line art. I draw my line art in the few areas I want it to show through (mostly to separate elements within the drawing). I delete my sketch layer.

Step 7: color clean up. Using thick brushes, I clean up my colors, and add basic shadow shapes. I make sure I’m not missing any major markings, or add in minor markings at this stage.

Step 8: fur. I draw in all of the fur elements using a textured line.

Step 9: Light and shadow. I apply light and shadow with an overlay and a hard light layer respectively. I often create a third layer to add white bloom, or highlights wherever necessary.

DONE!
Dog belongs to leiliak.tumblr.com/ !

Description
Less of a tutorial and more of a guide... This is how I approach my pet portraits! You may need to download the file.

Step 1: Loose gesture drawing. The point here isn’t anatomical perfection, but a FUN POSE! I sometimes draw TONS of these before I like one.

Step 2: Clean up stage 1. I’m thinking about my general shape language at this point

Step 3: Refine. At this point, I’m paying closer attention to my references and trying to pin point what shape language is in the actual DOG or ANIMAL I’m drawing. Note the huge difference in face and muzzle shape.

Step 4: Revison. I take a second close look at the animal. In this case, D’oh! I realized I was mentally phoning in the breed as a female, and my dog is a boy. Check for more elements I want to push, like the curvature of the spine, more puffed out chest, stockier legs.

Note: All of those 4 stages are done VERY quickly. But it’s important to try and capture your mistakes during the sketch phase and re-draw as necessary.

Step 5: rough color. I set the line art to multiply, and lasso the general shape. I paint in my basic color shapes, and erase into it to strengthen the form.

Step 6: line art. I draw my line art in the few areas I want it to show through (mostly to separate elements within the drawing). I delete my sketch layer.

Step 7: color clean up. Using thick brushes, I clean up my colors, and add basic shadow shapes. I make sure I’m not missing any major markings, or add in minor markings at this stage.

Step 8: fur. I draw in all of the fur elements using a textured line.

Step 9: Light and shadow. I apply light and shadow with an overlay and a hard light layer respectively. I often create a third layer to add white bloom, or highlights wherever necessary.

DONE!
Dog belongs to leiliak.tumblr.com/ !