WIP Wednesday | Marble

Whats up guys,

Today's WIP isn’t a logo, but an illustration. Yay!
Finally, something in my wheelhouse- not to say my logos aren’t good. But, there is a certain level of fun and subsequent comfort that comes to drawing and rendering.

This week, I was commissioned to illustrate someone’s dog. Her name is Marble.

Marble is dead. That’s right, today’s WIP is a memorial card for a dead dog. I don’t have any experience drawing dogs, so a bit of research went into understanding general dog anatomy and the special characteristics of golden retrievers.

Pinterest
Naturally I created a Pinterest board for this project much like any other. Because of the client specifications however, an unusual amount of the photos focus on the bust of the dogs instead of the rest of the anatomy.

Since the deadline for this commission is relatively soon, I didn’t spend as much time on the sketch explorations. I decided to just focus on how I’d execute the rendering and describing my values.

I originally only planned to draw Marble in profile but I’m considering adding a story moment below the head to design the space more elegantly. The floating head is really bothering me, so I’ll probably do more story sketches to bring out the dogs personality and make it more personable for the client.

This is the render I have so far. I’m not quite satisfied with the values so I may go over them again digitally or with the pen. I think if I do this in certain areas I can age the dog up significantly. She looks a little to hound at the moment. I’ll also reorient the text horizontally to allow the dogs silhouette to breath. As it appears now, the dog’s snout is creating a tangent with the letter ‘R’. On the brightside, I do like how I managed to capture the movement of the fur with the crosshatching technique. That’s probably the best part so far.

What do y’all think?
Leave your comments below and don’t forget to like and share!
Until next time,
Peace