- Ronin 4
The car is done, other than that part under Ronin's feet. The left side of it needs a little more blending, the right side needs more stippling and then blending. - Ronin 3
Starting to scratch Ronin now. There are some areas of the car that still need work: the moulding at the top of the door, the window frame on the right, and that entire part under his feet, but the rest is done. I knocked back the linework in the negative space areas with a warm grey Pitt marker. It was too contrast-y before, I like it better now. - Ronin 2
More progress on the car. That "STAY AWAY" lettering took a while to get right, and I'm knocking it back with a tattoo needle. There's still a lot of "sketchy" stuff going on - just to block things in. That's the beauty of scratchboard, I can tidy all that up as I go along. There's plenty of blending work to do where the drawing shifts from positive to negative, and that section under his paws will take some time. And THEN I can start on Ronin! Since he's in front, I want to have all the underlying work done, so I can layer his fur on top - Ronin 1
Very early stages of this drawing . . . Ronin will be the easy part, that's why I started working on the car first. I wanted to figure that out before I started on Ronin. I'm going for a sketchy, "blueprint" effect for the line work that's outside of the full-render zone, with a transition between. Ronin will be in color, everything else will be black, white or grey. - Ronin - Reference Photo
My reference photo of K9 Ronin - taken at an Sacramento Sheriff K9 Association event in 2014. - Ronin & Me
- Off Duty? 4
With color (watercolor). I didn't spend a ton of time on color-correcting this scan. The dog looks pretty accurate, but the water isn't quite right. I'll take more time when I scan the final. At any rate, in the home stretch at this point. Next:scratching to add highlights on the dog, and separate him from the background. - Off Duty? 3
Border Collie is all scratched, ready for color! That will help pop him out from the background. He won't have spooky eyes either. After adding color, I'll scratch as needed. - Off Duty? 2
Still working on scratching the dog, but I've started adding a water background. Read the story about the water here: When You Want Different Water - Off Duty? 1
5" x 7" scratchboard of a Border Collie: "Off Duty?" because anyone who knows Border Collies knows they're working even when they're playing. - Off Duty? - Final
Finished! 5" x 7" scratchboard (Ampersand Scratchbord), with watercolor and some India ink for re-inking & drawing long, black hairs. From my own reference photo taken at a dog play day many years ago. - Off Duty?
5" x 7", $55 8" x 10", $85 - Livestock Guarding Puppy
This little one is 6 weeks old. It's a Spanish Mastiff/Great Pyrenees mix. - Livestock Guarding Puppy
This little one is 6 weeks old. It's a Spanish Mastiff/Great Pyrenees mix. - K9 Yukon - Final
The finished portrait 10" x 8" scratchboard with watercolor