28/05: TIGGER - WIP (cont.d)

We've had a 'bitty' couple of days - loss of internet connection (again) and catching up with things at home/in the garden after our few days away ...... so I decided not to work on the current commission till Monday and to carry on with Tigger at odd times between the 'boring household stuff'.

So here's a photo I took this afternoon.  I have done a little more work since it was taken - smoothing out the body fur colours and trying to darken the background a little but haven't photographed the latest stage - the background is kind of trial and error so I hope I don't screw the whole picture up by 'playing'.   I've stuck with the black backing paper for now but don't have a sheet large enough to support the piece of drafting film at the moment - hence the paler edges you see in this photo.  

We have a busy day tomorrow - visiting our respective Mums, my horse and Richard in hospital so I won't be updating this for a while.    Hope you all have a good weekend and the weather stays kind to us all.

18/05: TIGGER - WORK IN PROGRESS

My next commission can't be shown here for a while as it is a surprise gift.   I'm awaiting approval of the 'mock-up' so in the meantime thought I'd dust off the drafting film and tackle one of the 'big cats' I photographed a couple of years ago at the Wildlife Heritage Trust in Kent .   

Drafting film is a sort of plasticized, semi opaque film more familiar to architects and draftsmen than artists until recently.    It doesn't have any 'tooth' so doesn't take many layers of pencil and that adds to the artistic challenge - and speeds up the drawing process.   Because it is semi opaque (with a grey tinge) the film needs to be laid over a coloured background sheet.  One major advantage is that you can draw on both sides of the film to give a 3D effect and emphasize highlights etc.

With this tiger, I decided to use a black backing sheet.   Part way through, whilst showing hubby a progress report, I just slipped a white sheet of paper behind the drawing and he thought that made the colours 'ping' more.   I'm reserving judgement.   

I will be away for a few days now so no blog posts for a week, but I'm looking forward to getting back to this one and seeing how it develops.

OK .... first WIP.   This is a photo and there is quite a lot of reflection off of the film but, as you can see, I started with the eyes as usual.  I'm drawing on the film with a sheet of black paper behind it.  So white pencil strokes show up quite bright and the orange/red/yellow shades mute down a lot

A bit more progress - lots of tiny pencil strokes for the hair.  Still drawing on film with black backing paper.

My idea for this picture was that the tiger would be emerging from quite a dark background - hence the choice of black backing sheet which will facilitate this.   My original ref photo shows the tiger in bright green grass (and I didn't fancy tackling that as a background).  With a black backing sheet the white pencil shows up clearly and the black recedes

Then I slipped the white paper behind the film and doubts are creeping in.   These photos probably don't show the colours at their best but certainly the orange/red/yellow look much more striking.   With the white backing sheet the white pencil disappears and the other colours dominate ... jury's out for now!!

17/05: BOUNCER FINISHED

At the request of my clients, I deepened/darkened the colours in Bouncer's coat and the portrait has been approved so - just a light spray of fixative and its ready to go. (not the best of photos - I've chopped the edges off a little but was trying to get some close-up detail)

14/05: UNDER THE WEATHER

Both David and I got struck down with a sickness bug over the last few days ... so no hospital visiting and we've both  been feeling very 'ho - hum' and tired.   I know better than to work on commissions or other important jobs when feeling like that, so instead I 'played' with coloured pencils on a piece of Colourfix which I know a blogging/artist friend likes very much.   To be fair, Janet did suggest working on darker colours with cps and I should have heeded her advice.

I took several pictures of young alpacas at the Kent Show last year and thought two of these could be arranged to look as though they are having a chat - probably about hairstyles as they'd both been recently 'shorn' for presentation at the show.

I'm reasonably pleased with the dark alpaca but I just couldn't get the light colours to work and have now ended up with a bit of a muddy surface - I could remove the colour with solvent I guess but I rather think this is destined for the bin - but it was an interesting experiment.

Anyway, we're both feeling 100% better today,  so its back to the portrait of Bouncer this afternoon - I'm really looking forward to that.

11/05: BOUNCER - A LITTLE MORE PROGRESS

Here are some more progress pictures - the photos were taken at different times/light conditions today so colour may vary slightly.  

I probably won't do any more to this portrait tomorrow as we will be visiting Richard and that eats up most of the day for us.   But it will be back to the drawing board on Thursday

10/05: BOUNCER - PASTEL ON FISHER 400

I started work this afternoon on a portrait of Bouncer and as this isn't intended as a surprise gift I have permission to show some work in progress photos along the way.   

As followers of my blog will know, I used to be reluctant to show early stages as portraits always have to go through an 'ugly stage' before the final tweaking/colour adjustments etc., which make all the difference to the final portrait.   

Unfortunately, Bouncer is no longer with us and there are no 'head & shoulder' reference photos available but I have been provided with several full body photos showing her beautiful colouring and we have agreed on the pose this portrait will be based upon.

Here I have sketched the outline and main features/fur direction etc., using white pastel pencil and I have drawn the eyes in so Bouncer's portrait begins to have a little personality.

A little more work:

I'm really just blocking in colours/shadows/highlights at this stage and the portrait will change constantly along the way.   I did do a little more work after this but the light was poor and the photos weren't good so I'll show more updates tomorrow.

09/05: WEDDING ANNIVERSARY

We've been so caught up in dealing with the aftermath of Richard's accident that we totally overlooked the fact it is our Wedding Anniversary today.  David and I are both 'second time round' and met 12 years ago - both vowing 'never again' but .... we eventually tied the knot and its the best thing we ever did.   We had a 'Kentish Wedding' in Knowle Country House a Victorian mansion where to a certain extent we could select our own words/music and that was followed by a meal for family and friends.       Unfortunately David got the giggles halfway through the vows and that set me off - we were laughing so much  I'm really not sure if we invalidated the marriage - We walked down the 'aisle' to Buddy Holly True Love Ways and left to the Beatles singing All You Need is Love .... unfortunately the master of ceremonies left the CD running and the next track was CRAZY by Patsy Cline so I think the scene was well and truly set then!    The next evening we'd hired a hall and threw a party/disco for family and extended friends/work colleagues .. so we really dragged it out for a few days.

Doesn't seem like 8 years ago ... but here's a couple of piccies

Back to posting artwork tomorrow!

07/05: ALLSORTS

We stayed up watching TV till 4.30am this morning following the election results but then had to admit defeat and retire to bed.  Consequently haven't felt like doing very much today.   

We had a walk  round Whitstable today to get some fresh air and this afternoon I've been listening to 'HotFMCanary' radio station on my computer.  That's the local radio station in Corralejo/Fuerteventura where we have a holiday home.  We should be there at the moment but cancelled the flights when Richard (stepson) had his motorbike accident on 18th April.  The owners and DJs at HotFMCanary have dedicated this afternoon to helping us raise funds for the Air Ambulance who airlifted Richard to the Royal London Hospital from the crash scene.   We know full well that many people in the Canaries have been struggling for the last 18 months or so - the recession has led to a reduction in tourism and many bars/restaurants have been forced to close - so all donations are doubly appreciated.  I believe the fundraising will continue during the weekend also.  David and I are really proud that the site he set up to keep Richard's friends informed of  progress has now received more than 60 entries on his guestpage and raised in excess of £1,000 in donations for Air Ambulance - and with more to come it seems.   http://www.getwellrichard.co.uk/

Whilst listening to their antics on the radio (lots of challenges for the DJs to sing live on air /accept dares etc) I've been working my way through lots of old photo files on the computer and deleting/tidying the folders up.    I came across some pictures taken a couple of years ago and thought I'd post this one.   

This is the 'Old Neptune' pub (probably one of the most photographed pubs in Kent)  it sits on the beach and is perfectly silhouetted against the spectacular sunsets.    I believe the pub was built in the 1850s and damaged lots of times in storms/floods then finally in 1897 the old wooden building was completely washed away in another great storm.


The ‘Old Neptune’ was rebuilt, using timber reclaimed from the original structure and several other cottages that had also been destroyed.  The building has warped and twisted over the years owing to its old wooden foundations, however the timber structure seems to accommodate this movement as can be seen in the window frames and sloping floor.

I called a halt to the Meerkat picture and put it out of sight for a while.  I added some brighter colours to compensate for the dulling I've noticed - I'm glad I had the time to experiment with cps on sanded paper but it isn't a combination I think I'll use often.    I have so many photos of Meerkats now I'm sure you'll be seeing more in the future :o)    Next up will be a Golden Retriever (I believe), a pony and a German Shepherd (all in pastels I think).  For myself, I'd like to fit in some wildlife art .... but watch this space.
 
Meerkat :
 

05/05: MEERKAT (CONT..D)

We've been out and about a lot today, shopping and doing chores and I wanted to have a look at a new Gallery which has opened in Whitstable - they have been appealing for local artists to exhibit there and the rents are quite reasonable (and just 5% commission to be taken in aid of a local charity).  At the moment I don't have the 40 pictures it will need to fill the walls - but I may have a word with some other local artists to see if they'd like to share costs/wall space ..... something to think about anyway.

I did another couple of hours on the Meerkat but found myself getting bored and rushing it - which is a bad mistake with coloured pencils - especially on sanded paper as the pencils need to be sharpened after about half a dozen strokes ....... not sure this is very cost effective as the paper really does eat the pencils and, it might just be my imagination but the colours seem to dull very quickly on the paper.

I did read on another forum recently that some papers need to be 'rested' when using coloured pencils, to allow the paper to absorb the waxy pigment - maybe that is what I'm encountering here (??)  Anyway, as somebody famous used to say 'I've started, so I'll finish' but I'm a bit disappointed in this one.

Tomorrow we are visiting Richard in hospital.    He had the op yesterday to wire/fix the broken facial bones so we wanted to wait an extra day to give him time to recover.  Fingers crossed we'll see more progress.  

05/05: MEERKAT

This little cutie kept us enthralled recently and I must have come away with more than 80 photos (not taken at the Kalahari desert - but at Port Lympne park in Kent)

Its a bit of an experiment for me and may end up in the bin.   This is my second trial with coloured pencils on Fisher 400 paper which is quite heavily sanded.  I love the paper when used with pastels but not so enthusiastic about coloured pencils.   Many coloured pencil artists prefer working on sanded surfaces so I'm persevering and trying various brands of pencils from Derwent Coloursoft which are very creamy/waxy, Prismacolors (also quite soft), and some Blick (own brand) pencils which are a bit harder.  Unfortunately I don't have many Polychromos in my collection but I think they work better as they are oil based rather than wax based ..... they are on my wishlist

Early stages:

Can you tell what it is yet??   (oh, btw the background is watercolour pencil brushed with a damp paintbrush)

03/05: ROCKY FINISHED

I should have left well alone ..... but I guess we've all been there.  I decided to brighten up some of the highlights in Rocky's coat by using soft pastels.  Disaster!!! It just looked flat and heavy on top of the finer pastel pencil work.    Took me about 3 hours to even it all out by brushing it, 'fixing' it and reapplying pastel pencil (all this with hubby saying 'I told you so' in the background) :o)

This really is the finished article now.    

So ... Not a very productive day, although I did take a trip to a local garden centre to buy a few shrubs for the garden (too cold and wet to actually plant them this afternoon though).

We have friends joining us tonight to take part in a Quiz at a local pub - hope I can kick the grey cells into action before then :o)

02/05: TERRIER in PASTELS

Thanks to everyone who has sent get well wishes to Richard, via emails or entries on his webpage Guestbook  www.getwellrichard.co.uk/   Richard is still in a coma, two weeks after the accident but he has briefly opened his eyes, squeezed our hands etc., in response to our voices so things are moving in the right direction, albeit painfully slowly.  We have been warned it may be weeks or months before he 'wakes up' properly.   We currently visit the hospital every 2nd or 3rd day and in between times are trying to carry on as normally as possible.

The weather has been absolutely appalling in Kent today, with torrential rain and strong gusty wind all day.   Work in the garden is totally impossible so the poor blackbirds are having to leap around on the long grass looking for worms and generally 'rootling' as they love to do.   I can barely see their heads above the grass :o)

It has been very gloomy in my 'studio' but I've got a lot done on the picture for my farrier.  Rocky, his companion of 10 years sadly died recently and I was asked to draw him.   I'm not sure what breed/cross Rocky was but I think part Patterdale Terrier - I know he was a very hairy little chap so quite a challenge.    I started work on him a couple of days ago and really wanted to finish him today, but I suspect I will need to do more tweaking when I see the picture in good light.

I did take a few WIP photos - the colours may change slightly due to photos being taken at different times of day/lighting conditions.   The support is Sennelier Pastel Card and this 'dark blue' colour has a green tinge to it in 'real life'

I've sketched the outline in and tried to show the direction of hair  - a major task with this coat!    As usual I draw the eyes in first.

I can see lots of different colours in Rocky's coat, hence the 'underpainting' with lilac, various shades of ochre and pinks - these will tone down considerably once the detailed hair is drawn on top

At this stage I realised I'd made the underlying coat colour too 'yellow' - thats what happens when I draw in the evenings with overhead electric lights - and forget to turn the daylight lamps on to rectify the colour balance!

26/04: ANOTHER CAT - PASTELS ON FISHER 400

I haven't posted for a while as my stepson (Richard)  had a nasty motorbike accident on 18 April and was airlifted to Royal London Hospital where he remains in a coma.   The broken bones in his leg were pinned/plated last week and the wiring of his facial breaks is scheduled for tomorrow.   We are all waiting for him to wake up/open his eyes so the doctors can assess the brain damage/eyesight.    There are minor glimmers of hope each day and in response to the nurse shouting and prodding him, Richard has opened his eyes very briefly on a couple of occasions now

When not visiting the hospital we've been trying to carry on as normal (whatever that is) - David has been tiling one of our bathrooms and he has, today, set up a website to keep Richard's friends/family updated with news as we get it and also to try to raise funds for the Air Ambulance Service who transported Richard to hospital so rapidly.

the site is http://www.getwellrichard.co.uk/  hopefully he will be able to post some more positive news soon

To fill time I worked on the last of the cat pictures I hope to exhibit at the Society of Feline Artists exhibition in London (August).    These are the work-in-progress pics.   Unfortunately, to get us out of the house today we decided to take all 4 pictures to the framers to discuss mounts/frames.  I ended up leaving the pics with him, and have now realised none of them has been signed and I hadn't photographed the last stage of this one (with his whiskers).     I won't be collecting the pictures till June and will try to photograph them in their frames at that time.

The picture is A3 sized - pastel on Fisher 400 paper

He really does look soooo much better with whiskers - but you get the idea I hope :)

Now, despite my resolution not to undertake new commissions for the next few months (unless it is a voucher redemption or a work already scheduled in) I've agreed to do a pastel portrait for my farrier.  He has just lost his beloved dog to peritonitis and says it is worse than losing a ten year old son as  'Rocky' was always with him at home and at work.     I have previously drawn Rocky in cps as a gift for my farrier's daughter and luckily have still got some of the original ref photos.   At this time, I'm finding my art to be very therapeutic and the best way to pass the time whilst waiting for news from the hospital.

16/04: TWO CATS FINISHED (I THINK)

I did a bit of tidying up on 'Wednesday's  Cat' and will probably call this finished now

and this afternoon I continued working on the picture of Page - unfortunately, the final photographs were taken as the light was fading and they turned out a little blue.  I have adjusted the colour slightly to more closely match the original but hopefully I'll get the chance to photograph it in better light during the weekend.

Having almost finished the cat, I wasn't sure what to do about the bottom left hand corner.  In the reference photo there is a blurry, soft focus, effect.  I think its probably the edge of a cat bed?   Anyway, despite hubby's advice to draw a brick wall (??!!) I took the simpler option and merely copied what I saw and that's the way it will stay :o)

I doubt I'll get the chance to do any more drawings for the next day or so as we had 40 bags of compost delivered today and that needs to be spread on the flower beds tomorrow, we also have a very untidy and extremely muddy  'hidden' corner of the garden which needs to be cleared as the garden landscapers will be working there next week laying a gravel/paving slab base so we can more easily use the area in the Winter months.   So a couple of days of hard labour coming up!!

Have a good weekend

15/04: 'PAGE' ANOTHER CAT - WIP

I have photographs showing Page in two different poses and will draw them both and decide which one(s) can be included with the submission to SOFA.   I can only submit 4 pictures so decision time will be next week I guess.

This is A3 size, pastels on Fisher 400 paper.   It isn't going as smoothly as the previous two and I'm not sure why.   Because the Fisher 400 only comes in one colour (light sand) I decided to do a very simple white wash background.  But I don't have any white watercolour paint. I tried using shavings from a watercolour pencil but that wasn't successful.  I then watered down some gouache .... not brilliant but it did the trick.

The colours may alter from photo to photo as they were taken at different times of day, in different daylight conditions.

I always start with the eyes - if these don't work I know I'll never be happy with the picture.   Well, that could be the case here also .... I think I'm 'nearly there' and decided to crack on and just mark out the areas of darker fur

The ears are finished and I carried on just blocking in areas of colour working out where his marking are:

To borrow a phrase from a fellow artist - I'm 'flitting' around this one, adding detail in some places, then smudging it all in and losing definition.  So I decided to be sensible and call it a day.   Hopefully things will improve tomorrow

14/04: ANOTHER CAT 99% FINISHED

I had a real tussle with the new printer this morning.  It threw a major tantrum because I loaded 'Epson compatible' inks rather than the real McCoy.  My old printer used to object slightly if I loaded non-Epson inks but after a polite 'do you realise I may not be able to give you high quality results if you proceed with this cheap stuff' it got on with the job ...

Not this printer ..... it stamped its feet and refused to print.   After 10 minutes it told me it was out of Cyan ink.  So I added a new cartridge.   When it did the same thing for the other three colours, which I knew  were full , we had a heated discussion for another half-hour before it eventually shrugged its shoulders and printed my picture!

This all came about because I decided to draft out another cat picture last night - not a good idea after a large glass of red wine.    When I looked at the outline this morning I realised it was way out .... so I wanted to print out the ref picture and grid it so I could more easily spot/rectify the problem area in my sketch. 

Anyway, apart from the computer hassle I've had an interruption-free drawing day.  The gardeners won't be back till next week and David (hubby) was out for the day.     I made good progress with this cat and, like the ragdoll, I will leave it for a few days and look at it with fresh eyes/do final adjustments next week.  I'm not happy with the fur on the 'white ruff' although it looks like that in the ref .... I'll need to have a think about that bit.

This is drawn in pastels on Fisher 400 (still my favourite support for pastels)

13/04: RAGDOLL CAT - 99% FINISHED

Another day where I didn't get as much time for artwork as I'd hoped ... but the guys are working wonders in our garden and I'm looking forward to getting out there at the weekend and tidying up the beds and pots and sowing seeds etc.   These lovely guys turn up on time, are polite and friendly and ultra tidy .... so I found myself dashing off to the supermarket to buy biscuits and cakes to offer with their hourly cups of tea ... things I don't do for my own hubby :o)    What a sign of the times eh!!

Anyway, the ragdoll cat is just about finished.   It needs some tidying but I'll come back to it in a day or two and look at it with fresh eyes.

I have another three cats on my shortlist - then it will be on to some wildlife art for a very welcome change

Given the angle of the pose and to accommodate his whiskers, I will slightly offset the portrait in the mount/frame and it will look something like this:

12/04: RAGDOLL CAT - WIP

Things have been a bit chaotic here today.   We have a team of landscape gardeners renewing fences, digging foundations for retaining flower bed walls etc.  They started work last November but because of the horrible Winter weather haven't been able to complete the work till now - our soil is heavy clay and it has just been too boggy for the guys to work out there.

Anyway, I did make some progress with the cat but not as much as I'd hoped.  I'm enjoying this one and hope that will be reflected in the end result:

11/04: CATCH UP TIME

My lovely hubby bought me a new computer on Bank Holiday Monday and its taken the best part of five days to configure everything.   Why must upgrading be so difficult?   The latest programmes no longer support the old anti-virus or email packages and the printer won't talk to the new machine ..... what a nightmare!!

Anyway, I think everything is sorted at last and this machine is certainly much faster.  I'd had the old one for five years so I guess it was almost an antique in 'computer years'

Since returning from holiday I've been experimenting with different combinations of pencils/pastels and supports.  I have quite a collection of papers that I've tried and abandoned over the months/years and thought it was time to revisit them to see whether I like them any better now.

I've concentrated on drawing cats as I think I may still be in time to submit a picture or two to the SOFA Summer Exhibition if I can come up with something I'm happy with.  So its been almost 'a cat a day' for the last week!   I joined SOFA (Society of Feline Artists) last year but was too busy with commissions to draw any cats 'for me' and I hope to remedy that situation.   This year I will be accepting far fewer commissions (until the run up to Christmas) as we need to do a lot of work in the house and Garden this Summer.

This is an experiment using Prismacolour coloured pencils on Colourfix paper.   I really struggled with this and didn't like the combination at all - in fact I gave up before finishing the drawing and have just cropped the bottom of the picture out.  

This is drawn in pastel on Clairefontaine Pastelmat and I was much happier with the coverage - the only problem I have with Pastelmat is the limited colour range - this is 'Natural Sienna' which is a great colour in daylight but looks almost orange and a little 'garish' in artificial light.

I love this little chap ..... drawn in pastel on green Canson Mi-Teintes paper.   Canson do a fabulous range of colours but, having got used to the heavy duty sanded papers, I find this paper quite 'flimsy' at just 160gm2 and coverage is not as good (IMHO).  I will be 'test driving' some Murano paper later in the week and suspect I'll have similar views on that range.  But, I'm committed to re-trying the various brands I have gathering dust here ....... I'll probably be leaving the velour till last as I bought quite a lot a couple of years back when it was very 'fashionable' before I fell out of love with it. 

I know I've shown this next one before but I entered him into the UKCPS Spring Exhibition at Keswick.  Closing date for entries was yesterday but, because space at the Gallery is limited and the exhibition will probably be oversubscribed, it will be 'names out of the hat' to select pictures to be hung.  We won't know the results of the ballot for a while yet.   If I'm not one of the successful entrants in the UKCPS exhibition I will probably see whether it can be submitted for the SOFA exhibition.   Actually, this photo was taken before he was properly finished but as he is mounted and framed now it's not so easy to get a decent photo because of the glare from the glass.  He was drawn in coloured pencil on Fabriano Artistico HP paper and the title is 'Curiosity did what?'

and, finally in the cat series, this is one I started today and all I've done here is sketched the outline and fur direction very roughly in white pastel pencil.   As usual I've started with the eyes and I'm looking forward to progressing with this one tomorrow.   It will be drawn in soft pastel/pastel pencil on Sennelier La Carte on the 'dark blue grey' colour.   At 360g this is is real heavyweight paper so its no wonder I'm finding the Canson rather flimsy by comparison!  I will be posting some WIP pics for this one I think.

I have a couple of coloured pencil pictures on the go as well - really trying to get out of my 'comfort zone' and add scenery/backgrounds.   I'll post those on another occasion though.