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.

Lion - Finished!

As I hoped I would, I managed to get the Lion finished yesterday. I took a break in the afternoon and went back for half an hour in the evening to finish off the details. So here he is, Unison pastels on Pastelmat, 50x70cm, and I'm toying with the idea of the name "Pride" suggested to me by a friend.

Lion WIP

Another quickie post today, I'm hoping to have this guy finished today at somepoint so want to spend as much time as I can away from the PC and at the drawing board. More of the lion done, will block the rest of the mane in then go back and pick out more details on the face.

Lions and Damsons and Jams, oh my!

As this, somewhat whimsical post title suggests, my time of late has been taken over completely by the afforementioned items. Damsons, as I've mentioned before, have become the bane of my existence, littering the garden, getting trodden on and trampled into the house and matted into Zac's fur. The fight back begun last week with copious amounts of jam and chutney making! Our cupboards are now full enough of damson preserve to last us at least a year, with more of the little devils still to be picked from the tree. My next plans are for Damson Gin and Vodka, which can be nice Christmas gifts and also will be great for my own personal use (in moderation of course!)


Onto the Lion: I decided to paint another large pastel piece in order to take to the gallery, and I found a picture of a male lion looking skywards in the free section on a stock photo site and thought it was a beautiful pose. So here he is, I'm toying with the title "Contemplation" but I am terribly indecisive so it may change several times before he is actually finished.

Logan

While I'm here I thought I should maybe post some of the commissions I've completed lately, here is Logan, my cousin's black labrador who was my very first pet portrait! Here he is as an adorable puppy in graphite:

And here he is again as an adult, as a Christmas gift from my cousin to his wife, which I had framed and posted up to him, just in the nick of time as well if I remember correctly!

Sunny...

Yesterday my life, was filled with rain. Sunny, is my latest commission! I've put my elephant to one side of the drawing board and begun this cutie. His name is Sunny and I have had the Boney M song on continuous play since starting this drawing!

Just like the song, it's happy and upbeat, and I have a really good feeling about this one turning out brilliantly.

At the moment it's just emerging out of the Ugly Stage, but I am posting all of my steps so far.

I've brightened up the pictures a little in Photoshop since they have not turned out very well in this light. He is much less yellow in real life, but it's easier to see the stages of the work like this.