Zulu – Rhodesian Ridgeback portrait hand drawn in Traditional Charcoals on drafting film.
A selected range of quality products featuring this charcoal painting “Zulu” can be seen below and are now available for purchase.
VIEW ALL PRODUCTS FEATURING “ZULU” RHODESIAN RIDGEBACK DOG PAINTING
My second entry for the Canine Art Guild’s ‘Helping Paws’ online Exhibition is my charcoal painting of “Noble” the German Shepherd Dog. “Noble” seemed like a very appropriate choice to exhibit in an exhibition titled “Helping Paws” considering the number of GSD’s around the world that lend their paws to help people in need in many different situations including the Police force, military, search and rescue and service and therapy dogs that aid people with disabilities and illness.
“Noble”
German Shepherd Dog
Charcoal Painting on drafting film
11″ x 14″
$350.00AU inc shipping
10% of your investment in this artwork will be donated to
the Animal Protection Society of WA.
German Shepherd Dog original Charcoal Painting by Michelle Wrighton
“Noble” will be available for sale in late October/November as I have entered him in a couple of local art competitions.
All of the artwork in the CAG Helping Paws Exhibition is for sale with part proceeds going to rescue groups and shelters selected by the artists around the world.
To view the work of many talented canine artists, please visit the ‘Helping Paws’ Exhibition after October 1 (US time), and while you are there, vote for your favourite painting – the rescue group chosen by the artist who wins the People’s Choice award will receive a cash donation from the Canine Art Guild (as well as the artists’s donation pledge when the art sells).
If you have a German Shepherd Dog that you would like to see painted (obligation free) to help dog rescue please send me a photo or two and a brief description of your noble friend.
I will post the third and final entry to the Helping Paws exhibition on opening day, so look out for that one!
Thanks for looking:)
Michelle
I have a number of pieces on the go at the moments, this pet portrait of a beautiful German Shepherd dog isn’t finished yet, but I thought I would share the progress photos to give an idea of how this portrait has developed so far. I am working to avoid just duplicating the photograph, I do want the piece to retain a definite hand drawing look, and I am experimenting a bit with ‘painting’ the charcoal rather than drawing as such.
Charcoal on drafting film approx 9″x12″ image size.
Let me know what you think so far!
I am looking for more German Shepherd models for my “Best of Breed Series”, so if you are owned by one or more of these beautiful creatures, there is some additional information here.
I’m glad to report that the new carpet has been laid and our house is slowly returning to normal – I today I can finally step back inside my studio!
After painting for the last few pieces, I wanted to get my hand back into drawing mode so I started this Rhodesian Ridgeback as a quick experiment see how graphite works on drafting film. Drafting film is my favourite support for colour pencil work, but I have never tried it for graphite until now (very few artists use it, although I have found one artist who has been using it as a support for thirty odd years).
Photographing it proved very difficult, but I have finally managed to get a semi-reasonable digital image of this one by scanning it, it is still a work in progress, so not yet completed. Film is a really nice surface to work on, and it is more like painting in graphite and charcoal than drawing that is both good and bad, good because it allows very soft transitions of tone, bad because it is easy to lift off and smudge.
I normally only use charcoal for getting my darkest darks in my graphite work, but I found myself leaning more and more towards the charcoal with this one, and whats more, really enjoying ‘painting’ with it using a variety of tools such as chamois, tissue, cotton buds (q-tips), a watercolour brush and a make-up sponge.
Probably the best thing about drafting film though, is the ability to put a different colour paper behind the drawing. I used a cream parchment paper, and although it dosn’t show properly in the scan (think marbled/mottled cream rather than solid), the effect it gives in real life is really interesting, and something I am looking forward to experimenting a bit more with.
The reference photo was one of my own, and the drawing is approximately A4 in size and when it is finished I will probably offer prints of it at RedBubble.
The first image shows the drawing with the cream backing:
The second image shows the drawing with a white background:
I’d love to know your opinion on my experiment, and if you use drafting film for graphite and charcoal work, or would like a charcoal pet portrait of your own Rhodesian Ridgeback, I’d love to chat;)
