How to draw a realistic dog portrait with pastel

Hello everyone.!!

Today I will show you how to draw a realistic dog portrait using soft pastel and pastel pencil. I love using pastel for portrait painting. It is very forgiving medium and blend so easy with your finger. it can give you and soft or rough finish. It does not need any messy material like water or medium to dilute it. No brush, No Canvas, Just paper. I hope you enjoy.

Material I use

1. Canson sanded pastel paper ( You can use any paper that suitable for pastel)
2. Artist soft pastel (Any brand). I use Winsor and Newton. The student grade also works really well.
3. Pastel pencil for fine details. I use Derwent and Stabilo. 
4. Kneadable rubber for erase/remove unwanted area or lines.
5. A reference photo. For this tutorial, I use the photo of my mom's dog 'Zumo'. He is a Pomeranian. My mom asked me to paint him many times so today is the day.

Methods

1.  I start to draw a rough sketch of the dog's head from the photo. Just to give me an idea of the overall image and how it will fit on the paper. I pay attention to the details around the face such as eyes, nose, mouth etc. I use a white pastel pencil. Then I start the toning process with soft pastel. I always start from the top left of the image as I am a right handed to prevent smudge on my drawing.
Blending with your finger (the pinky one works best for me). Adding some hair-lines with pastel pencil as you go.  

2.  Gradually adding more tone and details from left to right and from top to the bottom. Work closely with the reference photo to see any tonal values, light and shade areas, hi-lights etc. Blend with your finger to soften the area as you wish.

3.  After I have finished the whole image from top to bottom. I work back and forth to check any details that I have left. Keep adding more details that I can see from the photo. I adjust the portrait a bit to make it fit right on the paper. and Here the finished portrait. Ta da !

Compare with the reference photo

Try how it looks on the wall?

See it in Video version on You Tube

You can see a video the process how I draw a dog portrait via the link below. It is a different dog but it will give you and idea of how I did it. I hope you enjoy. Please feel free to share if you like.

https://youtu.be/hXRndl1SvCY

See more of my art at 
http://www.facebook.com/NJ.FineArts

For commissioning a Custom Pet portrait visit my Etsy or Ebay shop below.

Etsy
https://www.etsy.com/au/listing/272651198/realistic-custom-pet-portrait-in-pastel?ref=featured_listings_row