Just a note to let you all know that I’ve just added 14 (FOURTEEN!!!) projects to my portfolio! You can view them all here: Leanne’s Portfolio

…and by all means, if you’ve got a project included in my portfolio, feel free to leave a comment! All of my weekly portrait giveaways, blog designs and paintings are present and accounted for.

Happy browsing!

I’ve just completed this custom dog portrait of Gala, a stunning German Shepherd whose time with her mom was cut short by a tumor in her heart. She was very much loved, and I really felt that love and wisdom coming through while I was drawing her today.

Don’t forget to enter to win a custom portrait in my weekly giveaway!

I worked this gorgeous long haired Siamese cat portrait today in pencil. Her name is Zoey, and her portrait is an ample 8″ x 10″. I’ve sent the proof along to my client for her review, but wanted to share her today with you as well.

Zoey’s reference photo has her lying in a heap of tissue paper (she was working away at shredding it into confetti, my guess is there must have been a graduation party coming up), so in lieu of drawing something not everyone would recognize, I opted to place her on her favorite white oval braided rug. It translates better (though my daughter asked if it was a dinner plate. Not kidding. Would you like fries with that?) – my littlest Chickeymonkey’s reaction was “ooooh FLUFFY!” and that was perfect for me. Fluffy on a dinner plate.

In all seriousness, I love to get the first reactions from my girls because it tells me if the portrait needs more work. It’s honest and raw. In this case, I was already pleased (hence the signature) so their confirmation (after we cleared up the rug thing) was all I needed to feel finished with the portrait.

I finished Josie’s portrait late lastnight, and my work in progress shots require much editing for lighting. I just took this daylight shot and will get it scanned for more accurate details and color – but wanted to share. Her portrait is exactly how I imagined it would be, and her loving personality is so apparent.

My to-do list is crazy big, Martina is singing White Christmas in the family room and I have much to accomplish in a few short hours! Will post the final scan once I have another moment.

xo

I began working on this lovely brindle pit bull portrait this afternoon. Her name is Josie, she’s a Christmas portrait so I’ll be getting this drawing done up in the next day or so to put it with a Gift Certificate for my client – I will be painting Josie again some time in January. My client rescues pit bulls and I have to give her props for that, she has 5 dogs at the moment (Josie, sadly, has gone over the rainbow bridge).

I am really drawn into this offset curled up pose, after looking through all of her photos I thought this best suited her personality and comfort in her surroundings.

I’ll post all of the progress together so you can “watch” the piece as it develops.

I’ve completed this pencil portrait of Audrey and Janeice, matted it and have it wrapped in and ready to present to Audrey today at Church. I’m not sure if all my little modifications are even noticeable to you, the eyes, a bit more blending in the skin tone and deepening, I’ve tweaked both of their noses – little things that seemed off to me as I kept looking back and forth from their photo to the drawing.

Here’s the piece matted and I’ve signed the matboard and it’s ready to drop into a frame, just in time for Christmas.

It’s been a busy week here in the studio, I’ve tried to get away a couple of times to get some Christmas shopping done – I’m so glad I can do so much of it online! Today I’ll be getting another piece ready, I’ll be drawing a brindle Pit Bull named Josie over the next week. I’ll also put together my Handmade Gift Exchange packages (Catie joined in on the fun, and her gift is just so cute!), get a hundred or so Christmas cards and postcards addressed, and attend the girls Church Christmas Program later on in the evening.

If you’re on Facebook – I did get the girls Piano Recital videos uploaded to my wall – go have a peek if you haven’t already, I’m so proud of them!

I hope you’re all doing well – and that you’re getting everything in order for the Holiday without panic! It always seems there’s less and less time every year, doesn’t it?

Another graphite pencil portrait that I’ve been working on, Audrey and Janeice. I started yesterday with penciling in the facial features and general outline – it’s pretty light but you get the idea of how getting these proportions is crucial as I’m working in the shading.

I started with Audrey, working left to right across the piece. Most of these progress shots are pretty rough, and even now I am still in my contemplating stage with the portrait since I notice things every time I look at it that need just a bit of tweaking.

Just like my previous portrait, I get the details down, shade in a medium value, and then return to blend, darken, and lighten or lift the pencil.

Audrey is all sketched in, now I’ll bring in the blender (a tortillion) and lighten with either a kneaded eraser or for this portrait, I’ve used a pink pencil-top eraser as the areas are much smaller and require a fine edge eraser.

Audrey’s portrait is blended now, though I’ll keep returning to it to make minor changes.

Moving on, I’ve begun Janeice’s portion of the portrait, roughing in those medium values.

Darkening in the hair, skin tones – her skin tone is really dark at this point so I lift a lot of that shading off with the kneaded eraser blend, and lift more.

This is the latest photo, and at this point I’ve gone ahead and signed the portrait and I’m calling it complete, however I am still going back every half hour or so and re-evaluating, making more tweaks as needed. I’ll post the final scan in my portfolio.

I’ve completed Jerry’s portrait and received the proof approval from my client, so this piece is now officially complete!

Much has changed since my last update, I’ve blended a medium tone over his whole face, then lightened and deepened further to get those final details. It’s turned into a very artistic yet lifelike rendering that I’m pleased to sign my name to!

I’m still working on a few other projects as well, another drawing, an illustration – and two blog/site design clients to button up before Christmas. Can you believe how fast the days are going by?!

I’m sharing a few stages of Jerry’s portrait with you today. Above, you can see I’ve already worked in his hair and have moved along to the left side of his face to work in the shadows. Initially, I’ll start with a medium value and work either lighter or darker depending on where I’m going in the portrait. I’m wearing a cut up sock (isn’t it cuuuuute) to keep the oils on my hands to myself and to prevent my wrist and hand from smearing the graphite.

Still working in facial features, darkening in the creases, browline, right eye.

Here I’ve got the portrait pretty well drawn in. I’ll go back with my eraser pencil (yes, it’s a pencil with eraser instead of lead, one of my favorite pencils!!) and also darken and lighten further. I’ll use my blender pencil (if there’s a cool pencil to be found, I’ve probably got one) to really give that depth and dimension to the finished portrait.

Overall, I’m very pleased with his portrait. It’s been a while since I’ve worked a two-legged creature (as June put it) and I rather enjoy the challenge!