Jude

Today I took Oscar and Wilbur to the framers, they will be ready next week for me to collect and send on their way to the client. I will be sure to post pictures as they will both look lovely in their frames.

Here is the work I have completed so far on Jude, I'm posting a few WIP pictures as I have been scanning at various stages to post on Facebook. So here she is, hoping to have her finished by the end of the week!

Wilbur

Another Christmas commission completed! This is Wilbur, he was commissioned by the same client who ordered Oscar, they will be framed this week then shipped off in plenty time for the holidays. He is also approx 12x14 inches, completed in graphite on Fabriano Artistico paper.

Next I will be on to Jude, another Cocker Spaniel, also in graphite. I hope to get the paper cut and the line drawing completed by today with perhaps a start on some shading. Also in the queue I have Lacey Lou, a Border Terrier to be completed in pastel, and two wildlife pastel paintings to be completed. So, very busy at the moment! Until next time, thanks for checking out the blog :)

Christmas Commissions

It's nearly that time again! Last year I decided not to do any commissions as I wanted to focus on the PP Diploma. Now I only have one piece left to do so I have been taken orders for Christmas and I am nearly fully booked! Here is the first one that I have completed, Oscar, a gorgeous Cocker Spaniel puppy in graphite.

I am currently working on a portrait of a dog named Wilbur for the same client which I am hoping to get part way finished today. These two will also be framed. Then it's on to yet another Cocker Spaniel, this time an older lady named Jude. Busy busy!

Weimeraner for PP Diploma

A quick post (again) I'm finally brave enough to show my WIP of the moment. A weimeraner in a simple garden scene, painted in oils on linen for the pet portrait diploma. After working mainly on the face and neck yesterday this area is almost complete, only some glazes and final tweaking to do. I'm actually really proud of this now, it's all coming together in the end! Lots more background work to do however, this is my penultimate set of exercises so I am determined to do them thoroughly and get them right.

Back to Posting

It seems I have neglected my posting yet again. I haven't been neglecting my art, but have been working on college pieces and gotten one assignment back for which I got a good assessment so I am very pleased. Here is one of the finished pieces, I started and finished in the same day so it was a very quick one for me and I have called it "Anyone for Tennis?

Anyone for Tennis?

In other news I have also been working on this little cheetah club, which I am hoping to tweak throughout the day until he is completely finished.



Amur Leopard WIP

I know I said I was going to concentrate on my college work...but, I'm waiting for a delivery of new canvases and Pastelmat, and the temptation to paint this amazing leopard just got too great. I'm very fortunate in that a work colleague of my boyfriend is allowing me to use his photos as references. He has some really amazing stuff, and a LOT of squirrels! So there may be a squirrel portrait in the works soon.

I'm very grateful to him and I said I would send him links of my WIPs, so thanks again Jon, and hope you like my interpretations of your brilliant photos! This is only how much I managed to get done today, I started at about 12 o'clock and finally finished the base drawing at about 2. So I only have a background and an ear to show. It's a big one again, 50cm by 70cm on Pastelmat (ofc) Please excuse the bad quality of the photo, my camera battery is charging so this was taken with my phone.

College Work

As promised, I didn't wait too long to post again! Here is today's work. This is one of my college pieces and as such is more of a practice than an actual portrait. The brief was to paint a close up portrait of a horses head and bridle, in any medium, to accurately portray the bridle and the shadows it casts upon the horse. I decided to do oils because it's the medium I'd most like to master and I'm sure Mel can offer me lots of help.

I found a free reference photo online and started work before Christmas. I've blocked in the main colours of the horse, some more refining is needed before I can start detailing though. Tomorrow I''m going to finish off the basic parts of the bridle and to try and blend the horse into the black background somewhat.

I'm not entirely happy, the canvas quality isn't great and it shows, this photo that I have taken isn't the best either. In fact, it looks pretty ugly at this stage. But that is what the course is all about, I can't expect to master something straight away, it will be great to get feedback once it's completed.

Catch Up Post

Oh dear, it's been ages since I last updated here. Truth be told though, I haven't been doing much regarding art over the past month anyway. I've been travelling to Scotland, then Romania to visit mine and my other half's parents, and it was generally a busy month!

I've decided to focus more on my college work, and I'm currently working on an oil portrait of a horse that will be given in for assessment. I have two more pieces to do to complete my set of work to hand in, and I need to do a big art shop tonight on GreatArt. They gave me a 10%discount code when it was my birthday in December and I can still use it up until the end of this month so I should hopefully get a decent bit off! Once my new supplies have arrived I'll be getting on with the college pieces.

In other news, I decided to get this piece finished so I can concentrate more on my studies.


The reference photo is by http://furlined.deviantart.com/ and I'm hoping to use another of his stock images for one of my next college assignments.

I've also been given permission by one of my other half's work colleagues, to paint any of his huge collection of animal photographs, which is a massive treat! He has a wide variety of animals and birds to choose from, all of an excellent quality and he's given me free reign to use as many as I want, he will also link from his Flickr page to my website and any other places I post the paintings. I'm thinking of giving him prints of the works in exchange for his generosity.

In addition I'm going to be updating the website with new, seperate galleries for all mediums, adding a sale page which will have prints, originals and vouchers for sale, and also I will be offering oil paints for commissions instead of acrylics.

So once my diploma pieces are done I'm hoping to have a lot of new exciting originals on the go. I'll sporadically post my diploma pieces here, if I think they are worthy of being shown, for now, I'm gathering a list of galleries to contact about some of my current originals, then it's time to take Zac for a lovely long walk. Hopefully it won't be too long before I'm posting here again!