Sam -drawing references

Doesn't he look different?

 

I really wanted to draw Sam in colour pastel but his owner had her heart set on charcoal, so colour wasn't really a factor that I had to worry about. The photo on the left has better tone but for a commission like this I think that the key factor is which picture looks most like the animal to the owner and how they like to see them.

 

Sam's owner chose the photo on the right but let me use some of the good points from the left hand photo too.

 

Now and again I end up working from photographs that wouldn't have been my first choice, but I feel that the more you involve the people who know the animals best the better chance you stand of really capturing the animal.

 

I took the head angle and forelock from the left shot and most of the rest from the right

Done