I finally finished.....

[Stewie'sSlave]

Whoa! Your such a great drawer! I can draw, but all of mine look more cartoony lol. Great job!

[lucky&babesmom]

ashley all your pictures are beautiful ,very well done!

[kian]

Fantastic Ashley!!!! Love Monsters picture.

[snifferspommom]

Awesome job!!

[Oliver & Henry's Mum]

Wow, that is a great portrait of Monster! You really are talented.

[Phyrie]

Ashley, your piece is really good. If that's what you can do with cheap pens, imagine what you could do with good tools! I work in coloured pencil myself, and once you've tried real artist-grade media, you'll never go back. The right paper makes all the difference too! If you want to stay in ink, there are lots and lots of choices out there for you.

I've never done a painting of my dog, or anyone else's dog, for that matter! I worry that I won't do them justice, but I am becoming more inspired all the time. I have a piece on my board right now (Dixie Doodle's mule, Angus) that is very close to being done, and I think when it's finished (after we get home from our holidays), I just might give a portrait of Kiba a try. You've inspired me!

[remsleep]

Thanks everyone for your wonderful comments!

Phyrie, I have been looking into more higher quality pens for a long time but I never know what to buy. Also I'm really comfortable with my cheap pens and I'm not sure if I could do the same things I do with the pens I have now with different pens. Maybe it's just my hatred/fear towards change.
I remember one year when my mother asked what I wanted for Christmas, I said pens. Then she went all "What do you mean pens? You don't want pens for Christmas?!?"

I have a good set of colored pencils that I won from my schools art show. I used to be really good with them but I haven't used them in all time, same goes for my acrylics.

A portrait of Kiba would be excellent. I look forward to seeing it when/if you do, that is if you wouldn't mind sharing it.

[Deerie me]

Nice work Ashley. Who/what are you going to draw next?

[remsleep]

I don't know yet. I was planning on doing one of my cousin on his wedding day of him and his bride but I haven't received the picture yet.

[Margie-Rex's Mom]

Ashley, your drawings are wonderful! I love the one of Monster. You certainly captured his personality!

Beautiful!

[remsleep]

Okay well it's not finished yet, just some touch ups and background, but I would appreciate 'fresh eyes' on the matter, whenever I ask anyone around here they just say "it looks good" what do you think I could do to improve it? Also what about the background?
I know I messed up quiet a bit but you can't erase pen! I don't think I messed up bad enough to have to start over though.

[RubyJeansMom]

Well Ashley, sorry but I'm another one to say "it looks good".
I'm sure the artists in this bunch (Tracy and Phyrie) will be along with some suggestions.

[Phyrie]

Another very nice piece. The only thing I can see that might need attention is the woman's shoulder. It doesn't "look" right, but it's like that in the photo too, so I don't know. There's just "something" about it that doesn't read quite right.

You've done the woman's face and hair wonderfully. You might want to tone down the "blush" on the man. What kind of pen did you use? Even ink can be lifted with some poster hanging putty. Do you have any of that? The king of pencil/ink, Mike Sibley, recommends Blue-Tack brand, but even just a putty eraser can be soften in the hands and rolled over the drawing to lift some of the ink out. It can also be brought to a point to lift out tiny spots, and brought to an edge to clean up lines. Useful stuff. Of course, you should be using good paper for these tools to be effective. If you're still using cheap cartridge/copy paper you won't have much to work with.

[remsleep]

Thanks RJM!

Phyrie, that's the spot that I thought looked wrong too. I thought the hair was going to be a complete nightmare to do but it was actually the easiest thing. I was probably just over thinking it.

Of all the years I have been drawing in pen no one has ever told me it can be lifted! This is wonderful news, it's like Christmas! I'm still using cheap pens, papermate. But the paper I'm using is a good quality watercolor paper.
Why am I using watercolor paper when I'm drawing in pen you ask? Because I really like the way it holds the pen and plus I used some watercolor in the picture, his jacket, and I was planing on using it for the background too.

[remsleep]

I recently finished a drawing of one of Remis' doggy friends. She actually was injured I believe back in December(?) and it took them a great while to figure out what was wrong or something because she just recently had TPLO surgery done and is now recovering. I thought that I would give her human mom a present.
I am actually overall pleased with it. I see problem areas but no one else seems to notice them so I won't try to fix anything in case I mess it up.

My mother tells me that I should start charging people for portraits but I'm not sure anyone would actually want to pay for one.