Oh how I loved doing these Briard dogs! These have been one of the funnest portraits I have done. I think it is becuase of their whispy shaded hair. With the horse I just did, it also has whispy hair. Another thing is, they usually have light shining on them. So when I do the hair, I do a double brush. So, lets say it's a blue/ black color like Ulani, on the right. I first squirt some black out, then squirt some blue out. I get some of the black from the first squirt, and mix the color of blue I like. I tend to make the right color of each color before mixing together. Instead of just mixing the blue from the bottle into the black, I mix in some black into the blue before I mix them together. I am really not sure if it has any impact anyways. Sometimes I put a little purple in with my right color of blue, this makes it a little deeper, and maybe a little more rich. Once I get the best color I can get. I squirt some white out, not into my blue/ black mixture though. If I did just mix the white in with my blue/ black misture, then it would become a washed out white color, almost like a baby blue. It might be nice in some cases, but not in this case. So this is the double brush part I was telling you about. I get a full, but thin brush, and dip into my blue/ black mixture, then I brush it over the white, enough that it got a nice thick streek on the bottom of the brush. Then I do what I do on the canvas. Brush it in the way of the hair. And once you look back at it, it will be a perfect shading mark. White smoothly brushed over the base color. Perfect! Another good way of doing the light shading is to do your base color, and wait until is dries. Then brush the white over it, this is not the double brush technique though. It make more of an over the top kind of shading. The double brush is more of mixed in white, but still making the shading affect!
