NO MORE GULLS ...... PLEASE

I found time to finish the Gulls this afternoon ... I have 8 ready to mount and frame. 

They are quite 'basic' but the whole idea was to keep them simple so they were fast to produce and can be offered for lower than normal rates at the Exhibition I'll be participating in over the Easter week.   The Gallery is in my home town of Whitstable (which is a seaside town) so I'm hoping these might attract buyers looking for 'topical' work.

I will have some dogs/cats/humans in the exhibition as a back-up but I found they didn't sell well at the last couple of shows ... all depends on the visitor and footfall though

David asked why I haven't drawn a 'pair' of gulls, or several 'pairs' of gulls as that's how we see them most often on the roof of our neighbour's house having noisy conversations with each other - but I've had my fill of gulls for now and also my fingertips are very sore from blending pastel into the sanded paper (my own fault but I do it every time I use Fisher 400 paper and I never learn)!!

These are the pictures with a mount/frame just laid over the top to show how they look.  I still need to sign the pictures but will wait for a couple of days in case I decide to do a little more tweaking first

By the way, if anyone has trouble seeing these photos (are they too large)? please let me know.   I know Jan can see them with no problem but I'm never sure whether to leave the size as Large or Extra Large - 'Original Size' option is too big for my layout and overlaps the borders.     These are all 'Extra Large'   
Thanks
Sue

SEAGULLS

We were out yesterday visiting friends and family and also test-driving a new car ....

Yes,  its that time of year again when hubby gets a bee in his bonnet about changing the car.     Although he is (was) a chartered accountant and knows it doesn't make financial sense to change the car every two years its the one thing he has alway done.  He is a bit of a' petrol head' whereas I think of cars as nasty contraptions that are necessary to get you from A to B but I'm not really bothered about the model or the age (so long as it is reliable and comfortable)!

The two cars test-driven on Tuesday and yesterday were both crossed off the list for various reasons and I'm bored with car-showrooms/salesmen so I let him go out alone today to drive a Mercedes he'd had his eye on.      Apparently it has ticked 99% of the boxes on his checklist so looks as though the deal is done

Having him out of the house left me free to get back to work on the gull pictures ... but I couldn't settle and kept finding things to sidetrack me.   So I haven't got as far as I'd have liked today.    3 are now finished and one is halfway there

I've just laid a simple double mount over the top of each to show how they will look.   The idea is to put each into a very plain black frame (unless I find something I like better in the 'cheap' price range as I'm hoping to produce more of these and offer them at fairly low prices when exhibiting at the local Whitstable Gallery over the Easter week.   

As I live in a seaside town I'm hoping gulls might prove a popular subject - fingers crossed!

As I mentioned in the previous post, these are all done in pastel on Fisher 400 paper which is a golden coloured sandpaper.

BACK AT THE DRAWING BOARD

We got back from India on Sunday - having had a fabulous time despite the VERY hot temperatures which were in the high 30s every day (nearly 100degrees)

Sadly I managed to contract another cold (3rd this Winter) which has 'gone to my chest' so I'm coughing and wheezing and feeling a bit yuk still ... I've had it for more than a week though so it should be on its way out soon.

Its back to reality now.    Exhibitions are looming and I learned that one of my entries was juried into the UKCPS International Open Exhibition and I'm very pleased and relieved about that as it means I have had entries juried into the annual exhibition for 10 years out of 11 since I became a member of the Society and this year I will achieve GOLD Signature status!   Yeayyy!   I was a tad worried as I really hadn't done anything special for this year - I ran out of time and resorted to reworking some older practice pieces.  

The exhibition is smaller this year - just one floor of the Gallery is being used so the number of entries was cut back and the standard has got much, much higher (so I'm doubly pleased to have sneaked in with one entry)

I have a commission to crack on with but am still awaiting good photos so ..... 

I'm also exhibiting with the Made In Whitstable Group over the Easter week and have to find around 12 - 15 pictures to fill 'my' wall space at the Horsebridge Gallery in Whitstable.     I'm so bored with all the pictures hanging on my studio walls that I thought I'd get my backside into gear and do a few 'cute' puppy/kitten type pictures - just to sell! ....

Having been out all morning I finally sat in front of the computer around 3pm to look through my folders of cat & dog ref. photos and I came across some photos I'd taken of a Herring Gull on our roof a couple of years back.    I don't normally draw birds but .... why not?     I live by the sea and gulls are a common sight here in Whitstable so I decided to give them a whirl even though they aren't particularly pretty.

The first one took me two hours, start to finish .... so that's a real bonus.     I've now outlined 3 others and put in the blue backgrounds.  I'm on a roll !

I'm working in pastel on Fisher 400 paper - which is a golden coloured sandpaper that just eats pastel pencil.    The background is soft pastel.

I have lots of these double mounts which are white with a black 'inner' and suitable for A4 sized drawings.   With commissions I tend to work 'bigger' so the mounts have been redundant till now   It will be easy (and cheap) to find frames this size to suit the pictures.

I've used more of the darker blue pastel for the background on the next 3 pictures ... which I'm regretting now as I quite like the green/blue colour of the original drawing.   The ref. photos are taken of the gull sitting on the roof of our house so the background is blue sky (and it was a perfect Summers day).

However the green blue colour (above) kind of looks like a nice sea colour which I prefer.

Too late now ...

I used two shades of Soft pastel on the sandpaper and then an old paintbrush to push the colour into the paper surface

Actually, the blue background isn't quite this 'blue' in real life but the photos were taken in artificial light so hopefully I can get better photos when I next work on these (Friday)

This is the last picture where I haven't used the brush yet to distribute the colour

Indian tour February/March 2017

Next weekend we're about to embark on our 3rd tour of India as a couple - (I've been to India many times in my earlier life).

With intermittent internet access and hectic travel schedules its always difficult to keep up to date but I do try to write Blogposts most days - and publish them when there is a decent internet access.  Because my camera takes such huge pictures I have to downsize photos before posting - this, coupled with slow internet, means that posts are like London buses.   Nothing for days then 5 come along together (or something like that)

In 2014 I introduced David to India via an organised tour which spent 8 days in the North (Golden Triangle tour) then a week in the South.   As a result we decided he loved India as much as I do ... but he/we couldn't cope with the organised tours - being herded along with 40 other people on a tight schedule with no time to stop and really enjoy the spirit of India.

In 2016 we compromised.    David and I decided where we'd like to visit in South and North India and asked a tour company to put together a package - including a driver and car where appropriate.   We had a great time - stayed in a tree house on a coffee plantation, on rice boats on the river, travelled by steam train and ferries and generally were able to meet local people and embrace local food/customs.

This year we've done our own thing.   We know where we want to go, what we want to see/do and have organised it ourselves (well David has done most of the nitty/gritty stuff).   We are enlisting the services of Joshi - our wonderful driver in Cochin/Kochi, in the South.    He was so helpful last year once he realised that we really did want to sample street food and street life ....

The weather forecast shows we're in for some very hot weather which isn't conducive to sightseeing (for us) but we'll take it as it comes ....

anyway ... last year's blog was here:   India - 2016

This year's blog will be: India 2017

I hope you'll follow our adventures!   Suexx

Flat Coated Retriever - finished

Whiskers and eyebrows added and I'm calling it finished now.

Time to clean up the working area now ... pastel dust certainly travels!

and in a double mount reading for framing.  

The mount is antique white colour so not quite as dull as it looks in the photo.  This gloomy weather is not good for getting accurate colours in the photos but looks as though its going to get worse over the next few days.     Temperatures are not due to rise above 2deg max with the possibility of sleet/snow.   

We're off to France tomorrow to stock up on wine and the weather forecast is very similar so we'll be wrapping up warmly.    We hadn't planned to go this early in the year but good old P&O Ferries are doing another offer of a crossing with car for £27 and they give us a box (6 bottles) of wine so basically the crossing is free.     It would be rude not to take them up on such a good offer wouldn't it?

Living fairly close to the Ferry port at Dover means we can do the return trip/shopping in an afternoon.   We don't linger for lunch or dinner but buy a selection of pate/cheese/pickles to eat with french bread/baguettes on the 90 minute homeward crossing ... we enjoy our 'picnics'

Flat Coated Retriever - WIP III

Another couple of hours on this today, darkening some areas and finishing the chest fur/curls and I think its finished .... barring the final whiskers/eyebrows which I can't add till I know my client is happy with the rest of it.

and ... phew!! that's a relief, the email just arrived saying she loves it.     Its dark now so will leave the final touches till tomorrow and then it can be mounted/matted and ready to ship .

Flat Coated Retriever ... WIP II

I got a little more work done today on the secret birthday/memorial portrait and emailed an update to my client

The picture made my client (and her daughter) cry apparently so think the likeness is OK.    

That's the 'bittersweet' side of doing memorial portraits ... a bit of an emotional rollercoaster for the clients and the main reason I don't like to personally deliver pictures if I can help it (I'm such a wimp)!

Anyway, I won't have time to do more work on this till Tuesday so another update in a couple of days

Back at the Drawing Board

Well, we had four weeks on Fuerteventura (Canary Islands) and the time just flew by.    We have a home there but also have a couple of apartments we rent out long term so it was kind of a working holiday getting various jobs done around the properties - including removing old wall tiles from the garden in our own place so it looks a mess just now.    I've got skinned knuckles as a result being a bit too vigorous scraping tile adhesive off the walls!

Whilst away we both had nasty colds so didn't do as much walking as usual and I don't think I took more than a dozen photos this trip - so nothing went on the Blog

We got back yesterday and I started work on a 'secret' birthday present commission which I need to finish and despatch next week.    Sadly the dog is deceased so its also a memorial portrait.

This is pastel on light grey Clairefontaine Pastelmat

Stage I - this is where I stopped work yesterday.

Stage II - I'd hoped to get more done today but had a restless night and didn't get to sleep till 3am so am feeling jaded today.    Its also very drizzly/gloomy so the photos are a bit dull

She was a lovely looking dog ... but such a serious expression here!     I need to do more work on her eyes at a later stage.   The photo was taken with flash I think so I've drawn what I see in the ref. picture but it looks a little strange.

I will do more work on the portrait tomorrow then email my client to make sure she's happy with progress to date ...

2017 ....

Well, the silly season is over and its back to some semblence of normality again (you may recall I'm a Bah Humbug sort of person)!

I really didn't get much artwork done in the latter part of 2016 - we were very busy but I'm sure I could have tried a little harder to make some art time.   If I was the sort of person who makes New Year resolutions I would add that plan to the usual 'lose weight' improve my Spanish, cut down on wine etc etc ... but we'll see.

We are going to be travelling a lot in the first 3 months of the year starting with a few weeks at our house on Fuerteventura (Canaries) from this weekend whilst work is being done at at our house here.

So ... I had to submit my entries for the UK Coloured Pencil Society's Int'l Exhibition today.   Entries have to be in by 3 February and I don't know when I'll be around for long enough to deal with it.   I haven't done anything new - these are all old practice pieces which I've tweaked a little in order to have something to submit.  You may recall some of these as I've probably posted them here at some stage:

The first is my coloured pencil drawing of a fisherman we often see around Corralejo harbour on Fuerteventura.    After hours spent at sea the fishermen congregate at a nearby bar for daily card sessions which become very intense and noisy at times.    He always looks very fierce but I guess his piercing stare is really due to hours spent squinting into the bright sunshine ...

This is the finished drawing:

I've added more detail to the background and more layers to his skin and clothing.    I also thought he looked a little too 'clean cut' and as I couldn't add any more white whiskers over the darker pigment I scraped away the top surface of the paper with a craft knife which has 'roughened' him up a little!   This was the earlier version:

This is Sax on the Beach.   I've never really been happy with this drawing as I struggled so much with the fiddly bits on the saxophone.    But there is a 'music' category in this year's exhibition so thought I might as well take a chance with him.   He is part of a  'hippy type' band of people who travel around holiday resorts in Europe and perform for money as street musicians/artists.    They are known as La Familia Flotante (the floating family) and they are actually very, very good - especially the saxophonist!   I photographed them several times whilst they performed by the Town Beach at Corralejo, Fuerteventura.

Again, I added a few more layers of coloured pencil - he was drawn specifically to fill a tall narrow frame I had at home:

 and the earlier version

This is a coloured pencil drawing on drafting film over a black backing sheet.    The subject (Spock) belongs to a fellow artist.  I met/photographed him last Summer - he really does have the most amazing curly coat.

and finally, the sikh character I drew earlier this year.     I've called this one Wisdom as apparently having a turban in saffron colour is a symbol of wisdom and I think he has a wise face and kindly eyes.

Now I've submitted them I can't do any further work on them which is a good thing as I'm very good at overworking pictures!

HAPPY NEW YEAR TO ALL MY BLOGGER FRIENDS.

Hope you all have a very happy, healthy and creative 2017

28/12: FINAL POST BEFORE THE NEW YEAR POSSIBLY

I'm embarrassed to see how long it has been since I last posted here .. but life has been a little hectic.

We spent nearly 5 weeks at our home on Fuerteventura in November/early December where we were very busy furnishing a house we purchased to rent out long term.    It was great fun sourcing all the furniture (good quality secondhand pieces) but hard work removing it all from our house where we'd been storing it for weeks to the new place once we got the keys.  We're getting a bit long in the tooth to be shifting furniture - even with the help of some good friends out there.   But we got the place looking very nice within 3 days and our tenants moved in 2 days later.   

When we got back to England we had lots to catch up on and, of course, we hit the 'silly Season' in full swing (Bah Humbug) ...

I finished the final commission of the year and that was well received thankfully.   It was a surprise Christmas present but, sadly, the dog had passed away recently and the ref photos were not good so I did the best I could but I always get a feeling of disappointment and frustration if I can't see as much detail as I'd like.

This was the end result (photos aren't great because the weather was very grey/gloomy/foggy before Christmas and these were taken in artificial lighting.

Pastels on dark grey pastelmat paper

I'm not taking on many commissions these days as we've got lots going on here, and on Fuerteventura so its difficult to find time to sit peacefully and just draw ... deadlines for 2017 exhibitions are looming and I do have to work on some pieces for 2 shows I'll be exhibiting work at around Easter time.   

I hope that adrenaline will kick in soon and I'll get a few smaller pieces on the go and will make sure I post progress reports here a bit more regularly.

I hope everyone had a good Christmas break and that 2017 will be kind.

Mini Wirehaired Dachshund - Pastels on Fisher 400 - update

I don't know what's going on with Blogger tonight ... this is my third attempt to publish a post ... first the picture wouldn't upload, then it uploaded but was giant sized and then all my text disappeared

Third time lucky !!!! fingers crossed ...

Briefly, my client and her husband popped round to my house on Friday to look at the portrait  and comment on the dog's colouring.    They both recalled that the dog's coat is darker (more golden/brown in places) than it appears in the photos so this afternoon I've been doing some tweaking, and putting in a subtle, blurry background to make the dog stand out a little more from the gold coloured paper (Fisher 400 sanded).

Once again, I left it late to take a photo and the light was poor but hopefully I'll be able to work on it a little more on Wednesday and will get a better photo (we're out and about tomorrow having lunch with friends so I don't think I'll have any 'art' time)

Mini Wire Haired Dachshund ... WIP II

I think I have to call a halt to this now until my client can visit and comment on the hair/fur colour.   In each picture the dog's coat looks different - I believe this is fairly accurate but will leave it to my client to decide

I think she has only met the dog once though .. and she can't recall its name so ... fingers crossed ... I can get some guidance and then I can finish the portrait and move on.

Oh .. and also need to know if a (very simple) background colour is required.   

Pastels on Fisher 400 sanded paper

Mini Wire Haired Dachshund - Pastels on Fisher 400 (Sanded Paper)

Its ages since I've posted or visited Blogger - we were away for 3 weeks and on our return had no landline telephones or internet connection for 5 days - thanks to our Provider, Talk Talk.

But we're back to normal(ish) now and catching up with events.

I realise I didn't photograph or post the final picture of the Doberman - however, it was very well received by the recipient (tears were shed) and she posted a very nice 'thank you' on Facebook so all ended well.

With all our commitments for the rest of the year I decided not to take on any commissions .... but, a lady living 5 mins walk from me, contacted me to ask if I could portray a friends little dog as a surprise 50th birthday present.    Unfortunately, the photos had to be taken surreptitiously on a phone camera and I've got an interesting selection including the dog's tail (as the dog zooms out of camera shot) and lots of blurry action ones.     The main reference picture we've agreed on is the best pose, but its very dark and I can't make out eyes or nose details - so this is pieced together from all the refs I have and with a little help from breed photos I've found online.

The lady commissioning the portrait will visit me next week to look at the work and decide if I've got the coat/eye colours right - she's seen the dog, I haven't.

So this is where I'm at after a few hours yesterday and today working in pastels on Fisher 400 sanded paper.

I'm drawing this to fit an 18" x 14" mount (13" x 9") inner size.   Normally I supply double mounts with all my pastel commissions and the sizes are slightly smaller or larger than this - this is a 'gutter mount' from SAA (Society of All Artists) which I'm trialling.   From the front it looks like a single mount but it has second (hidden) mount behind so stands proud of the drawing and provides a 'gutter' area where pieces of stray pastel can fall safely.

Variations in the colours are due to photographing the work at different times of the day (in poor light)

24/08: DOBERMAN - HOPEFULLY FINISHED

I've really struggled to finish this portrait.    I think I'd kind of taken against the ref/pose and so once I started working on the nose (which isn't terribly clear in the ref) I had lots of problems

I put pastel down, lifted it off with BluTack and just couldn't find the right balance - generally I love eyes and noses but ... I ended up really stressed and had to leave the portrait alone for a day.   I came back to it today which was 'make or break' as it needs to be done by the weekend and I really didn't fancy re-starting it.

I'm now reasonably happy with the likeness and have emailed these 2 pics to my client for comment/approval ... fingers crossed he'll like it.    In anticipation of a good result I've just tidied all my pastels away and dusted the tops in my room - how far can pastel dust travel I wonder?  Certainly over the entire desk, most of the floor area and I notice black fingerprints on doorhandles and light switches ...

In the ref photo, the dog's body is twisted around to his right side (our left as we look at this) and there was one hind leg, some body and tail showing.   I cropped these out to concentrate on the neck/chest area with no distractions.  

I used to do just head/shoulder portraits with no body but a wonderful artist ' Peter Barker' contacted me to ask why I 'truncated' my models ... he didn't understand/like 'floating heads' in portraits.   Since then I've always tried to bring the animal to the bottom/side of the portrait even if its just a faded out/suggestion of body so I don't have a isolated chopped off head ... hence the bit of chest and the orange patches at the top of the legs.

The portrait 'as is'

and with an old (single) mount loosely laid on top to show how the portrait will sit in the picture.     I always supply double mounts with my pastel portraits but didn't want to get one out of its cellophane till its needed.   This will fit a 20" x 16" frame

17/08: DOBERMAN IN PASTELS

Just a quickie
This is a commission I agreed to take on (despite saying no commission work this year) ... and I'm using pastels on Fisher 400 sanded paper so already getting sore fingers .. I always have to blend with my fingers and usually end up with 'bloody' fingertips when using this paper.

Its a long time since I've used this combination so having an interesting time ...

Its A3 in size so approx 16" x 12"

End of first session

Another hour today

both times I've photographed the work in evening/dull light so the colours are a little 'off' - in reality the Fisher 400 sandpaper is a little more 'golden' in colour.

I'm still at the stage where I'm trying to get all the base colours in but trying very hard not to lose sight of the contours/lines in his face ....

I should be able to do another couple of hours work on this tomorrow so will certainly get all the base colour in and  start reworking the finer detail ...  there will be a very simple background added but haven't decided exactly what to do yet.

10/08: FEELING TIRED!

I had one of those horrible nights when you just can't switch off the brain and get to sleep (until 6.30am when its almost time to get up) ... consequently this afternoon whilst watching the Dressage/Olympics I found myself drifting off/dozing at times ...

But I did do some more work on the spaniel drawing ... Ordinarily I'd tackle curls like this in pastel as I find it simpler, but I did fancy a challenge and its certainly been that!

Here's the latest update ... not sure if I will carry on/finish this tomorrow or pack the coloured pencils away and get the pastels out as I've got a Doberman dog to portray before the end of August.   I'm not taking on commissions at the moment ... but this one was a special request that I couldn't refuse.   I'm not overly happy with the ref photo but its good enough to work from so .. watch this space over the next few days

Here's the Spaniel - in coloured pencil on drafting film (with a black backing sheet) - size approx A3

09/08: CURLY CHALLENGE ... A LITTLE MORE PROGRESS

Well, despite getting distracted by the Showjumping at the Olympics, I did get a little bit further advanced on the coloured pencil drawing ... its evolving all the time with constant tweaking of the hairs/curls and I have altered some of the hairs after seeing this photo which really shows which ones look odd (despite being that way on the ref. photo) ... this is where a little artistic licence comes into play.   I'm going to need to brighten the highlights in the eye (to our right) also, looking at it here ..

09/08: CURLY CHALLENGE!

I started work on this yesterday and will get a little more done this afternoon.   I fancied a change from humans and what could be more challenging than all these glorious curls.

I had the pleasure of meeting this lovely character, Spock, earlier this year.  He belongs to a fellow coloured pencil artist who lives near me and whose work I collected from the London Gallery and delivered to his house when the Exhibition finished in May.   I always have my camera with me and couldn't resist taking a few pictures ... I think the photos were taken the day before Spock had an appointment with the dog groomer to get his curls clipped short.  

I'm working in coloured pencils (Polychromos) on drafting film with a black backing sheet and I'm making a few adjustments to the ref. photo as I want to reveal Spock's left eye (on the right side as we look at him) which is totally hidden by a lock of white hair which had fallen across his face.

Slow going, but its quite therapeutic

The edge looks a bit 'raggedy' here but that's just where I've used masking tape to secure the black backing sheet to my drawing board to stop it sliding around.   With drafting film you really need to decide in advance whether you use white or coloured backing paper as the coloured pencils look very different dependent on the background.    The drafting film itself is a semi-opaque/light grey colour

06/08: 'PLAYING'

David was out for the day yesterday so I had a little play on a scrap piece of brown pastelmat paper.

It does seem as though the Polychromos pencils are 'leeching' into the soft surface but the advantage of working on Pastelmat is that the coloured pencil can be 'smudged' easily with a piece of kitchen towel or a cotton bud and so large areas can be covered quickly.  I've sprayed with fixative to get a little more 'tooth' but can't add any more layers.   Roll on the time when we can buy 'Touch up Texture' as promoted by Alyona Nickelsen - available in the USA but not yet in the UK (although Jackson's assure me they will stock it in the future).   Just a little more tooth would enable me to fix that mane which is such a mess right now.

  To 'complete' a cp drawing this quickly is quite unusual - approx 5 hours for 17" x 14" picture but another time I will use a more conventional HP watercolour paper I think.

Anyway, I've called a halt to this drawing but may use it as the base for a similar one done on a different paper in the future