Poodle-Chihuahua Mix Pet Portrait in Colored Pencil

Earlier this year, I completed a couple of pet portraits for a client in colored pencil. I’d like to share the first from this collection — a poodle/chihuahua mix named Simon!

Simon has really interesting coloring in his fur — lots of cool greys mixed in with warmer greys and browns. I primarily used Faber-Castell Polychromos, with select colors of Caran d’Ache Luminance and Pablo pencils. In addition, I used a Slice ceramic knife to help with some of the highlight areas. This knife is not sharp to the touch and can be used to gently scratch out highlights along the paper. I tend to go back over these highlights with a light color so they aren’t stark white — I find it helps them to blend in a little bit better.

One of my favorite things I read about Simon through this process was that he is a total frisbee dog! He’s only 12 pounds, but he loves to jump in the air and catch his frisbee whenever an opportunity arises. Simon is certainly a lap dog too, but I found it really fun to hear about his athletic side since lots of folks think of smaller dogs as being lap dogs only.

I hope you’ve enjoyed seeing Simon’s portrait. This piece was completed on Strathmore 300 series Bristol Vellum and is 8”x8” (paper is 9”x9” including handling edges).