Pet Portraits and Wildlife Art

I have spent the afternoon working on Charlie, more of his forelegs have been completed and I have began to work on his toy (and what a toy it is, twisted ropes in pink and blue). He is now starting to take shape and look more real. Lots more to do though!!!

A bit more of Charlie's face has been completed, the far side of his face is very dark so I need good lighting to be able to see his other eye properly.

A bit more work on Charlie, I have actually blocked in some of the white and pale grey on his legs but until further work takes place these paler colours will not show up.

Work has now started on Charlie the springer spaniel, I am now going to make a concerted effort to leave my website alone SEO wise for a while as all my little fiddles and refinements have not really gained me much higher rankings (it may do over time) but I am doing this instead of portraits which should be my main focus of attention. So far I'm quite pleased with Charlie's progress but as you can see there is plenty more to get on with.

The latest update of child and sprocker, almost finished now and will be framed for delivery very soon. I've gone back to add darker areas on the jacket now and I just need to complete the dog.

Meet Hector, a very good looking black labrador. Hector came to visit today to have his photo taken for a future portrait. As yet his owners are unsure whether they want a head or full body portrait. They were the best type of clients to have as they brought plenty of images with them as well as Hector himself so I was also able to take a few shots of my own plus he was very well behaved and not at all camera shy so it was a pleasure to meet them all. I'm pretty sure his will be a graphite portrait but thankfully this one is a Christmas present so the deadline is way off...phew!!!

And... our 11 muscovy ducklings had a race around the garden today, they are a bit of an odd bunch as they chase each other around which I've never seen ducklings do before, when one falls over the rest pile on top in a bid to overtake, perhaps we should place bets!!! More than a few of them got stuck in an old belfast sink when they took a dip but couldn't get back out so I got a bit wet and messy launching the rescue operation.

Back to the drawing board....

I've lots of other bits and pieces to update but have not got time at the moment so will get back to update as soon as possible.

A few more pics of the horse portrait, things are going great guns with this one as you can see. I've completed the background with black pastel and charcoal and then fixed it with spray. All that is left to do is the neck (all I say, it's probably the same amount of work again due to the muscles, shine and tone of Roli's neck)

Also I have been busy with the sprocker and child portrait in graphite pencils, so far I have the main of the child down but I will need to revisit for more shading and blending at a later stage.

All in all a very busy evening and quite productive. Sometimes it's a shame I have to go to my day job!!! Talking of which we were marking douglas fir trees on the same steep bank as yesterday but as it was reasonably dry today I managed to remain upright, I think I need ropes to tie myself to the trees to hoist myself up and lower myself down like abseiling!!! It really makes my legs ache so I presume it must be quite good exercise, a little compensation I suppose. Luckily there is a small cafe near Hopewell Colliery, a visitor centre where tourists can visit an underground mine and see how it worked, see the pics below of the old mine workings.

And I have to say I'm pleased with the progress so far. I am also really pleased to be able to use an image of a spaniel taken by Greg Knight of http://www.ruralshots.com/ as another example of a pencil pet portrait from a photo.

...And the bad news is... I damaged the portrait of Mickey the springer spaniel. I was within a hair's breadth of completing him aswell, isn't it always the way. I had drawn Mickey's tail incorrectly and erased it a little too harshly damaging the surface of the portrait. I have tried to rework the area to no avail but luckily Terry and Lorraine, Mickey's owners, are being very patient in allowing me to start over again. Oh dear, what a disaster, I was more than a little upset, so much so I nearly had a cigarette after giving up three years ago!!!

And finally I have started work on the sprocker and child so I will update this as soon as possible.

Back to the Forestry work, today we worked like soldiers on a steep bank (felt like a mountain) in the pouring rain and by a busy main road, who says trees are all glamour. I wore my waterproofs which are made of rubber looking like an alien from Doctor Who and fell over no less than a dozen times, I gave up counting at this point as it became a bit embarrassing!!!

I was about half way up the bank when this photo was taken, apparantly it's good exercise and it really does fell like it now, I ache all over!!!

Charlie will soon have his own web page and visitors will be able to watch his portrait in progress.

I have also received more photos from Mickey's owners to complete his tail correctly plus to undertake another commission of him for them, in all I have about a dozen photos of Mickey which is ideal to work with for a pet portrait as I can use one main image to work from with the others for colour, eyes and fur details.