Pets are an irresistible subject and many artists find great satisfaction in painting their own pet portraits or friend’s pets.

In almost every online session, I hear a dog barking in the background or I see a cat climbing or your table and in front of the camera demanding attention, and I received via email many portraits of animals created independently, for my comments. This course is in response to this widespread interest.

The participants will be invited to submit photos of their pets, that I’ll be selecting as reference images for the class, considering the quality of the photo submitted.

The reference photos of your pets can be sent for the duration of the 6- sessions course, during which, I will also give tips on how to take a clear photo.

For this course, we will be using drawing media, such as graphite, charcoal and chalk, crayons and colored pencils on white and toned paper and possibly pen and ink.

We will start with charcoal and chalk on toned paper and we will discuss other possible media during the first class.

Open to all levels

Materials for the first and second class:

• Charcoal pencils: there are many brands of compressed charcoal pencils available on the market, I like to use Wolff’s Carbon in gradations B, 2B, 4B, and 6B, but Generalsis also a good and cheaper brand (in gradations Hard, Medium, Soft and Extra Soft). We will also need white chalk pencils:General’s or Faber Castell Pitt Pastel.
• Paper: gray or tan toned paper, such as Canson Mi Tientes, Strathmore Charcoal, or Ingres, made by Hahnemuhle, Fabriano or Canson. Fabriano Roma is also a very good paper.
• Blending stumps, kneaded erasers, pencil sharpeners and-or a small, sharp pen knife or box cutter, sand paper.