To start off my pet portrait I found a picture of my dog that I really liked, which wasn't too hard because every time she saw the camera she got really excited.
To get started I measured out how big the picture was and amplified it by 1.5 x and sketched the outline onto a piece of paper I measured. I made sure to get the proportions and placement right at this point of the process otherwise everything from here on would be wrong. Next I started with the lightest color I saw and layered that down that way the light colors would show through sand I could gradually go darker without being afraid I went too dark and couldn't come back. I did this with many many colors being sure my strokes all started from the same direction, but had some movement in where they ended up depending on where it was. I also made sure to make the hair size about the same, but kept it interesting with varied hair sizes.
Lastly I darkened the colors until they resembled the photo and I worked on the background until I had gotten the colors and shading right. I made sure to keep the light areas soft in color and darker up the colors that needed to be in the dark. I'm proud of this picture because I spent a lot of time trying to get the fur colors just right and I made to sure to detail the eye and ears because those are important features to get right. If I could change anything I'd be the way I draw the lines and their color because it's not as bold and each line blends in so I would need to make them stand out a bit more, but other than that I'm glad I chose to work with colored pencils.