Choosing Pastel Pencils for Drawing an Irish Setter

One of our members Claire sent in this picture she would like to do of an Irish Setter. One of the perks to membership is personal advice in these kind of situations. She would like to know what colours to start the picture off with.

"Could you please give me a little advice on colours to use for an Irish Setter? This is not the pose I am going to use, but I like the colour of this one. Claire"

As always, the colours I reference are from the Faber-Castell Pitt Pastel Pencil Range. I would suggest staring with 103 ivory colour for all the lighter tones and 270 for all the dark tones, this will give a good even base colour for all the stronger colours to blend into.Then use colours such as 187 and 283 with possibly a touch of 113 followed by 177 and even 199 for the very deepest tones. This is only a guide line and I would test the colours on spare Ingres paper before attempting the actual painting. White can be added as required for the highlights. There are bound to be other colours needed but these should be introduced as the painting progresses.I hope this has helped Claire and other others out there that might want to attempt a picture requiring these colours and tones.