This is Belle - a very beautiful little pooch, and she seems to know it! Her owners say she's a people-loving dog and very sensitive so I wanted to capture that from the pose. I painted another pet of theirs (Jazy) a few years ago posed on the same chair so I picked the same pastel paper to use again. I sketched Belle's outline before blocking in the dark areas with Conte pastels. Next I chose the lighter tones to block in followed by the midtones and bright orangey shades. I carefully blended them together to form a base on which to start applying stronger marks and details. These I did initially with the Conte pastels before moving onto using my favourite Faber-Castell Pitt Pastel pencils, blending a little less at each stage in order to retain the freshness of the marks. I used long, sweeping strokes on her ears and squiggly marks on the rest of her coat. Finally I incorporated some of the background buttons to tie it in with the previous portrait. I hope it works!!
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