Polly

Very realistic, and an awesome rendition of a lovable breed. You captured her friendly and inquisitive nature, characteristics of a labrador, perfectly. As a fellow dog lover I'm very impressed.

I have a few pointers to suggest as you said it was your very first dog portrait, so I have a couple of ideas to help you get even better!

My main thing I want to say is that I think this could be a lot darker, and i know you said you scratched out the nose quite a bit, but I think you could really stand to make it darker especially in the skin under the nose and the bridge between the nose and the start of her mouth. I would suggest using a 2B or even a 4B pencil used lightly, as you don't want it too dark, the pupil of the eye should be the darkest shade in this drawing.

I think you captured the fur very well, following the contours and folds of the skin, but I would just watch under the neck, where the folds are often much deeper, and there you need to show the fur following the curve deeper into the folds, if you know what I mean. Other than that, I think the texture is very realistic!

Keep drawing <img src="e.deviantart.net/emoticons/s/s…" width="15" height="15" alt="" title=" (Smile)"/>