Bonnie

Bonnie

rabbit

rabbit

Lisa

Lisa
colour 8x10

Mrs Blore

Mrs Blore
graphite 8x10

Oakley

Oakley

Blog Archive

About Me

My Photo
artbykarieann
I am a part-time pet portrait and wildlife artist living in the deep dark forest between the Royal Forest of Dean, Herefordshire and the Welsh border. A beautiful and inspiring place to live and create pet portraits and wildlife art.
View my complete profile
Powered by Blogger.
Saturday 18 April 2009

Leopard by Wildlife Artist Karie-Ann Cooper

After a 5am start, thanks to Willow and a temper tantrum by myself about my leopard wildlife portrait, too much grey going on for me today, I decided to start something new. My leopard is not forgotten but I need to leave it a while and go back to see if things make more sense. As I've already explained I need to build up some pieces to display at the gallery, I thought rather than persist with the leopard on rocks and make a hash of things in temper, I'd leave it and start another leopard instead!!! I thought I'd give myself a break by way of a change and I am going to try drafting film again. I've tried it twice I think and neither occasion filled me with joy, but now I realise my technique must be altered to use it I'll try again. I have to remember I cannot blend as normal and have changed from derwent coloursoft to derwent artists pencils as they are much harder and suitable I think, I didn't try them last time and found my coloursoft pencils were sliiping all over the place. Using drafting film means very few layers, which is a bit against my style but nevertheless, nothing ventured, nothing gained!!!
Plus I have bad news from the garden, our tragopan pheasant who featured in my post a few days ago has died, we cannot figure out why as he was displaying to his mate and she is now laying her eggs but we found him dead as a dodo this morning. I saw him yesterday and he looked fine, he was plump and hungry so I really don't know what happened. The trouble is they take 3 years to mature before breeding and last year was his first time and all four their eggs were fertile. To get another means getting a young bird and waiting another 3 years and by then the female we have will be too old. Buying a mature tragopan is like getting a mortgage so it's a bit of a disaster today. Plus one of the rescue hens has died, it's quite sad as she survived her year as a deep litter hen and then had a chance at freedom but died. She probably had a disease before getting here but I still feel so sorry for her.
Anyway on a more cheery note, it was very nice outside today so all of the rabbits and guinea pigs spent from 10am until 8pm out in the garden, plus you can see Willow and Zac playing on the lawn below....
...I think Willow is now a touch taller than Zac, at 4 months that's not bad! Zac is about 11 or 12 now and it won't be long before he gets overtaken by my girl!!!
Please visit here for a chance to win your wildlife image as a piece of art. Ends 30th April 2009
Thanks for visiting my blog, please come back again, your comments are very welcome

If you like my work please take the time to leave me a comment or become a follower (see bottom of page). If you would like to win a pet portrait of your dog, cat, horse or any other pet please see my new competition. It costs nothing to enter, all you require is internet access.
If you are interested in commissioning me please visit my pet portrait artist website or my wildlife artist website
Thanks for visiting!


5 comments:

Unknown said...

so sad to read about the pheasant...makes me wonder why too.

I am amazed as to how fast Willow has gotten. It seemed like only yesterday she was all paws!

artbykarieann said...

Our pheasant received a proper burial as they all do (and the hen did), we had a few plants to put in so it was a double whammy, grave plot and planting hole, at least we know where they are! And yes Sheila, Willow is growing at a rate of knots, really I don't know how much bigger she's going to be but I'd imagine she still has some way to go yet!

Anonymous said...

Hi Kari,
Sometimes it is just best to walk away from a picture for a while and go back later...this is why I tend to work on three or four pictures at a time, one drives me nuts and I will work on another one for a time then go back...the only downside to that is it seems to take forever to finish one piece !
I am sory about the Tragopan and your little rescue hen, sad news indeed.

artbykarieann said...

Hi Vic, it was sad news about our birds, I suppose we have so many that sometimes these things should be expected but the tragopan was 4 years old and happily trotted around us when we fed him in his pen/aviary. As for your method of having several pieces on the go, I used to do this and found the end of a portrait was always so far away but I beginning to think about reviving it so I don't lose interest!

Teresa Mallen said...

I'm sorry to hear about your birds. Definitely not a good day. I hope your drafting film experience proves to be a good one. I applaud you, as it isn't easy to change one's method of working, from many layers to a few. I look forward to seeing it progress.

Copyright (c) 2008 -2010 Karie-Ann Cooper. All rights reserved. All images, words and text remain the copyright of Karie-Ann Cooper. All artwork on this blog is protected by copyright law and must not be used, copied or downloaded without the permission of the artist