Why Do Coloured Pencils Create Such Realistic Pet Portraits?
Details, layers and techniques
Pet portraits (along with many other subjects) can be created using many mediums - oils, acrylics, watercolour, pastels . . . .
Before looking at why coloured pencils are particularly well suited to pet portraits, I wanted to explain how I came to use coloured pencils in the first place because it partly explains why they're so good for pet portraits.
My Journey to Coloured Pencils
I haven't always been a coloured pencil artist - but I have always been creative! When I was a child I was always drawing, from copying Disney characters when I was younger to album covers as I got older. I also had every "arty" toy going - Etch-a-Sketch, Spirograph, Scraperfoil . . . . .
Mostly I drew in graphite but sometimes I used felt-tips and "crayons".
When I left work in 2022 one thing I knew I wanted to do was spend my time creatively. Initially I started using watercolour pencils and then I progressed to watercolours and started painting botanical watercolours (I'm a keen photographer of flowers, much to my husband's frustration!)
It was my intention to sell my watercolour botanicals and when that wasn't overly successful my son suggested that I try painting animals. As an experiment, I painted an elephant from my own reference photo and then our neighbour's cat in watercolour and they were OK for a first attempt but I found it hard to get the level of realism and detail I wanted. There are some really successful and talented watercolour artists who can do this and hats off to them but I needed something which I could control a bit better. Watercolours also take longer to set up and you have to wait for the layers to dry.
I carried on using watercolours for botanicals but really wanted to find a medium which satisfied my interest in realism and detail.
Just before Christmas in 2023 I came across another online tutorial - this time for a robin using coloured pencils. In my naivety I thought we would complete the drawing of a robin in 2 hours - how wrong I was! Anyway, despite my unlrealistic expectations regarding timing I absolutely loved it! I loved the slowness, the level of detail it was possible to achieve and the realism.
My first coloured pencil drawing - December 2023
The 3 main reasons why coloured pencils are so good for pet portraits:
In a nutshell, there are 3 reasons that I feel make coloured pencils so well suited to pet portraits:
Control - you can build colour gradually and make tiny adjustments as you go
Layering - multiple colours can create depth and complex fur colours
Precision - sharp pencils and techniques such as subtraction techniques (erasing) allow for extremely fine details
I'll do my best to explain the reasons why . . .
The Level of Detail Coloured Pencils Allow
Without a doubt, coloured pencils allow for a high level of detail (especially with a nice sharp pencil on a smooth surface!) but one thing I think it's important to say is that it's not always the detail that creates realism - it's the values (the lights and the darks).
Because coloured pencils are a dry medium, you don't need to worry about the colours all blending together in an uncontrolled way or wait for the layers to dry before adding detail (you still need to have an awareness of how the colours will mix though and you do this through building up layers).
How Many Layers are Involved?
Different surfaces (papers) allow for (or require) different numbers of layers. I mainly use 2 surfaces - both completely different, requiring different techniques and layers.
Pastelmat - is only made by Clairefontaine and is made from cellulose fibres, micro-sanded to create a velvety surface. Pastelmat needs lots of layers!
Drafting Film - there are different types of film and my preferred film is Grafix Double Matte (which means you can use both sides). Drafting film can't take many layers!
What Techniques can Help Create Realistic Pet Portraits?
The techniques used on Pastelmat and drafting film are really quite different!
Pastelmat
The thing to understand with Pastelmat is that, although it has a velvety surface, it needs lots of layers to fill the "tooth" before you can add the detail. It actually looks pretty awful to start with! There are a couple of really good things about pastelmat - it's great for blending and you can use light over dark (once you've got enough layers in). I've never counted the layers but drawings on pastelmat take a long time to come together!
Blending with a cotton bud
From the first layer on the paw to the last
The one technique which is really important for pastelmat is light pressure - for many reasons but one reason is that you can lay down a few layers in different colours and then use a cotton bud to blend the colours.
Another technique which works well on pastelmat is using a putty (or kneadable) eraser to lift out highlights - to create shiny fur for instance. Probably my favourite technique is that you can use light over dark and this is perfect for adding white whiskers over dark fur.
Another thing you can do is to use Magic Tape. By placing the tape on the drawing and going over the tape with a sharp pencil you can lift out stray hairs.
Light over dark to create highlights - and whiskers!
Drafting Film
Drafting film is the complete opposite to pastelmat in that is has no tooth so it's super smooth and the pencil just glides across the surface. However, it takes fewer layers and it's very difficult to blend colours so you need to plan a bit more.
It does, however, have a number of advantages and like pastelmat, there are useful techniques which help create realism.
Firstly, you can use the back of the film, which is particularly useful for darkening the darkest areas and creating really dark shadows (and nostrils!).
Here I've flipped the film over and darkened the eyes, nostrils, the bottom of the nose, inside the mouth and under the ear
Film is great for creating detail (which I love) and soft fluffy and curly fur.
By using light pressure and drifting the pencil off you can create the appearance of soft fur
Probably my favourite technique is a subtraction technique. This is where you use tools to remove pigment to create details. There are 2 tools which work really well with film:
Slice tool (a cutter with a ceramic blade) is great for creating fine, flyaway hairs and whiskers
Tombow eraser (a precision eraser which works like a propelling pencil) can be used almost like a white pencil to create highlights
Here are some examples of where I've used the Slice Tool and Tombow eraser
I used the Tombow eraser to create the spines of the feathers on "Wistful Thinking"
On "Summer Hare" I used the Slice Tool to create the hairs in the ears and the texture of the fur on the top of the head
On Ollie's memorial portrait I used the Tombow eraser to create highlights and the Slice Tool to create the whiskers - you have to be brave !
Creating Lifelike Eyes and Fur
With the ability to layer coloured pencils, it's possible to accurately replicate the colours in an animal's fur. For instance, to create a rich black or brown, layering blues and violets under the black or brown will create a much more realistic fur colour than just laying down black or brown on their own.
When I drew JJ's memorial portrait I used a lot of Caput Mortuum Violet and Dark Indigo before adding various browns to add depth and create the rich chocolate brown of his fur.
Eyes on drafting film - start light and go to dark, adding all the colours and details and then use the Tombow eraser to lift out the highlights and catchlights.
Eyes on pastelmat - adding the layers and using a Polychromos Cold Grey 1 to blend everything together makes the surface smooth and then you add more colours and finally a very light colour for the catchlights.
Eyes are one of my favourite things to draw and they can be incredibly detailed, especially cats! Because of the control you have with coloured pencils, they're brilliant for capturing the details in eyes, and that lovely glassy appearance (although the techniques to achieve the glassy appearance are different, depending on which surface you're using).
Much of the realism in animal fur comes from the values (lights and darks) and this includes the shadows because they create depth (especially with white fur). On an animal where the fur is different lengths, by drawing upwards in a darker colour you can give the appearance of the top fur laying over the fur underneath without necessarily drawing the fur laying on top as I did with Honey's portrait here.
I think Honey's portrait is a good place to end and I hope this has been an interesting (if long!) read and thanks for reading to the end.
Thinking about commissioning a pet portrait?
If you'd like to see how these techniques come together in a finished portrait, please take a look at my Gallery. And if you're considering a poprtrait of your own pet, I'd love to hear from you.
Thoughts?
I'd love to know what you thought!
If you have a minute, please submit your response below and if there are any topics you would like covered please contact me.