I did manage to make the beginnings of a portrait of a black and tan terrier, my friend's dog, who makes interesting affectionate snuffling noises when he wants to give you a kiss (the dog, not my friend! ;) )
It's late now, so more later. And soon. I promise.
For now, I'll quickly show and explain a sketch I did.
I've gotten into serious preliminary sketches for all my pieces. What this does is a) give you an idea where your subject should be on the paper, b) how much space that subject should take in that piece of paper, c) establish your darks, medium tones, and lights, d) lastly, but absolutely not least, you get to establish and firm up the correct shapes before you begin the real deal.
I use some computer or sketch paper when I do this, it's not meant to be archival, ;), and you make sure that it doesn't get too detailed-you're just trying to figure out the previously mentioned points (you want to put that effort into the actual piece!).
To figure out the right proportions (i.e, the eye is so and so distance from that eye), you figure it out in fractions. You can use different parts of the length of your pencil and/or a ruler to achieve this. For instance, you look at your reference. The top of the dog's head is two thirds up the photo. You act accordingly when you do your sketch, and later to your actual piece.
Hope that helps those out there who have troubles with proportions, (I know I do, ;) ).
Happy blogging!
