Pet Portraits and Wildlife Art

Things have moved on quite a bit since the last update on this pet portrait. I have now completed the first ear and started work on the chest area. I gave up counting how many browns, rusty reds, creams I used on the ear and how many pencil strokes it took to detail the fur as well. Luckily I have only used two colours for the chest area so far as Bodie is quite white and only needs very basic shading to give the impression of fur. Work on the left eye as you look at the portrait did prove a little difficult as in the reference image was very shaded, thanks to the wonders of the computer world I was able to brighten the image considerably to complete this area. You can see previous posts of how this portrait has been created here.

And a little update on life at the 'zoo'

All of the pheasants hatched which was fantastic news, unfortunately due to the weather turning a little damp I now have an airing cupboard full of chirping chicks to keep them warm. Regardless of how well we do up the boxes they are in, some always escape and it does take some effort to recapture them.

Plus there was a tractor auction today and we travelled all the way to Shrewsbury with Willow, who as always managed to get lots of fuss and attention! We returned home with a few additional items such as a police push bike, a post box, 4 army weapons boxes, a lamp and a very large bag of cooked meat which a very kind man from Mr T's Roasties food van gave to Willow (she even managed to charm him!) and boy did she appreciate it!

Going back to Pickle the guinea pig, he is now much much better, his appetite is almost back to normal and he has actually put on some weight and his fur is now looking a little less fluffy now so that's a bit of a relief.

Click here you will see I've added a couple more spaniels to my next portraits, they are called Brodie (liver and white at the very bottom) and Charlie (black and white) and these will be two seperate head and shoulders portraits although they are to be for the same customer. I've never done a black and white spaniel before so this will be something I'm looking forward to.