A couple of pencil drawings!

These are a couple of pencil drawings I have been working on for my "Drawing Class" showing the students how I start out and bring the drawing to completion by using values and shading.
The drawing of the dog is a photo I took from a friend's FB page. I liked the position of the dog to create an interesting composition. You can see the "body" is sketched in which is how I start all of the drawings to get the form and proportions correct. When I feel they are right I start to layer in shading leaving the real darks until later. I like to build up to the real darks. The dog drawing isn't finished so I could show how I begin the work.

The horse is finished (I think!) The tail could use a bit more detailing but I like to study the drawing for awhile before I add anymore. You can see how dark you can be in a pencil drawing. I use various leads starting with HB up to 8HB. I also use a 2H for real small details. This really "pushes" the lead into the grain of the paper to create the heavy darks...ie. the tail.

So, I will be posting some more water colours soon and a few oils! I will keep you more up to date than I did in the past year.