29:12: BORDER COLLIE PUP - PASTELS ON PASTELMAT

The more observant readers may notice that this is not the Labrador I was supposed to be working on today (!!)  but David pointed out that I have another exhibition scheduled next week (for 1 week at the Horsebridge Gallery, Whitstable) and I'm rather 'top heavy' in terms of cat pictures - both domestic and wild.   He suggested I add another dog or two to the portfolio of works available for sale to balance things up.

So this puppy will probably be on exhibition.  I'm calling it finished now, although it will need tidying up a little when I can see stray specks of pastel etc in better light tomorrow.   I'll also try to photograph it in natural light (however poor that might be) as this is yet another 'flash' photograph.

This is intended to be a portrait of a beautiful white Shepherd puppy I photographed a while back when walking along our local beach path.   Her name is Snow Drop and she probably looks very different now as she will be fully grown. 

In some of the photos I can see her owner's telephone number on her identity tag, so if this picture turns out well and is ready in time to be exhibited I may contact him to see whether he'd be interested in viewing the picture at the Gallery.  He does live locally, judging by the area code of his number :o)   In any event, he might like to have copies of the photographs I took - I have about 20 (she was so cute and photogenic).

I'm not at all sure about the background colour here.   I had planned to use a pink shade but didn't have a large enough piece available.  This is Sennelier La Carte pastelcard in their Sienna shade.  I hope that once I have built up the layers of white fur the background colour will look less sombre.    If all else fails I'll have to add a background, but that really will be a last resort.  The paper feels quite 'scratchy' after using pastelmat for the last few portraits ... its taking a while to adjust to the different texture.

This is the outline I completed before the light became too poor

So, this may or may not work .... I'll have a better idea tomorrow!