Bonnie
rabbit
Lisa
colour 8x10
Mrs Blore
graphite 8x10
Oakley
About Me
- 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.
My Blog List
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Espresso7 years ago
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Legendary Greyhound sire, Molotov9 years ago
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New Blog11 years ago
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Corel painter 12 work12 years ago
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Singing for me supper13 years ago
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Red Tail Hawk13 years ago
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Calendar13 years ago
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November Storm in Virginia15 years ago
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Saturday, 28 February 2009
Dog Portrait, Skye
23:28 | 
Posted by
artbykarieann |
I've now added a pale background to Skye and after approval from the client I just need to source the right coloured mount before the portrait can be sent off in time for the impending birthday.
I've not done any art today because of a huge tractor show at Malvern 3 counties showground. I was co-conspirator in buying wings and cowling for the Fordson now being done up on our drive. Unfortunately my other half is hopeless at haggling so I end up having to do all the hardwork for him, which I did and got a discount so I hope he appreciates it
This is a quick shot of the corner of the auction area at the grounds, click on it to see how many people were there, we've been many years now and I've never seen as many people there as there were today, it was impossible to walk around without being knocked about, we were trying to buy the wings and cowling second hand at the auction to keep the tractor parts original but the wings sold for £450 plus 15% VAT plus 5% buyers premium and the cowlings for £330 plus those same extras, I thought it was the credit crunch! The old tractors I followed fetched £11000 and £12800 plus again VAT and buyers premium, the £11000 is like the one sat on our drive bought for £550, unbelievable! We bought newly made wings and cowling which cost two thirds less than damaged older items!!!
And then there is my news for Willow, she managed to get into a box of rat poison and eat 2 blocks resulting in a rush late night and expensive call out to the vet's tonight. Luckily the brand of rat poison is so pathetically poor and couldn't kill a flea that she would need to eat the entire box for it to make any difference. Phew!!! I was so manic and upset, I already know I cannot manage without her, I've had to water her with copious amounts of salt water to make her sick which really is very unpleasant but I'm just so pleased she's ok. She is currently stretched out on the dog sofa with Gypsy snoring her head off so all is well.
And my other pet news is that we have located a farm near Monmouth which is selling all it's battery hens for new stock, usually they end up slaughtered and these hens are luckier than most in that they have some access to the outside world and now will be rehomed. We are off to collect as many as we can fit into crates and the boot of the car tomorrow to bring home to live the life of Riley in our garden. I've spoken to the farmer who is very very nice for not killing the chickens but also very nice to talk to and he is going to try to catch as many as he can for us before we get there, that will be such a help as even with our chicken experience, if a chook don't want catching she ain't gonna be caught!!! Once they get home they will need to have their wing feathers cut to stop them flying out of the open pen as we will need to keep them shut in for a few days until they realise this is home and go back to their correct pens each evening. It's odd to see but all day the chickens run about the lawns and orchard but as soon as dusk falls in they all go back to bed on their own, we simply have to go around shutting all the doors up, one minute they are all over the lawn and 5 minutes later they're all roosting in the correct bed. Wouldn't it be nice if children were so easy to train I hear all those parents say!!!
Please visit here for a chance to win your wildlife image as a piece of art.
Thanks for visiting my blog, please come back again, any 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!
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Thursday, 26 February 2009
Dog Portrait, Skye
I had a day off from my day job today and got stuck into Skye's portrait. I managed to complete her second ear, collar and neck area. I'm leaving the background until I hear back from my client as to what colour mount is needed and then I can use a complimentary colour for behind Skye. I think I've managed to catch Skye's alert look, it does look as though the favourite doggy biscuits have arrived!!! Next I'm hoping to move onto Patch and to finish the cat portrait of Elle.
Plus I've received another blog award from the lovely Martina
So I have to say thank you to her, and please take time to visit her blog. I have to pass this onto 5 blogs I like so I will do that in my next post as whittling things down to 5 blogs can be quite a task!!!
Please visit here for a chance to win your wildlife image as a piece of art.
Thanks for visiting my blog, please come back again, any 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!
Tuesday, 24 February 2009
Dog Portrait, Skye
Again, not a wonderful shot, I've managed to catch a shine above the eyes and leave a shadow on the right side, perhaps I need to take another digital photography course. I've worked on Skye's muzzle since the last update, her nose is now in place and I've completed the ear on the right side. I've chosen to use a brown (earth brown) for the shading on the neck fur, this does look a little dark at the moment but I intend to layer over it with pale grey and white to give it more depth, it looks frightening to me at this stage as I'm always worried I won't be able to dampen it down, so fingers crossed!!!
COMMENTS PROBLEM
I seem to be having an problem with receiving comments for which I apologise, I'm not sure what the problem is, I don't think it can be anything I've done as the blog is a google blogger post so perhaps they have a technical issue, thanks Carolann for letting me know, I thought everyone was ignoring me, please try again later, I love receiving comments, it does make me feel as though I'm not talking to myself all the time (just some of the time!!!)
DOG TRAINING
As for puppy training with Willow the german shepherd, she was very good with her exercises but she still yaps at other dogs, the trainer told me to walk away and ignore her as she would grow out of this, so on her encounter with a labrador today I simply let her carry on and ignored her but she barked and barked and barked so the black lab whimpered away, not sure if I really should let her bark but I'll reserve judgement on that one! Luckily she isn't at all nasty and after barking at a little collie puppy last night she then spent most of her time trying to play with him!
Please visit here for a chance to win your wildlife image as a piece of art.
Thanks for visiting my blog, please come back again, any 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!
Monday, 23 February 2009
Dog Portrait, Skye
I've made a but if headway with Skye the lovely spaniel, I've received an email from Laura when I told her work had started and to visit my blog she said 'Hi Karie, I saw it earlier today i don't like it i love it already it looks fantastic! Adam will be so pleased its really hard keeping it a secret!' so I'm pleased things are going to plan. I've now worked the second eye and part of the ear, this was by using many layers, first I put down a pale beige brown colour just to get shapes right and to show where the darker shading would be, then I used a pale pink to put in the highlights very lightly, after this I went back to the darker areas using about 4 or 5 layers of browns in varying strengths and shades to get the depth right. As usual I'll go over these areas time and time again until I am satisfied everything looks as it should. You can see previous updates of Skye here
I'm posting this early tonight as Willow and myself are off to puppy training tonight, we've been practicing a little so she should know what she's doing!
This photo of her was taken at our previous work area (Bromley) towards the end of last week, Willow seemed to take a supervisory role at this point and sat on the edge of the pathway watching the rest of us hard at work!!!
We've now moved onto a place called Knoxham, where I saw this fungus on one of the trees, I have been reliably informed by Andrew the Oracle it is a bracket fungus and in times past it would be allowed to dry and used to polish leather.
Thanks for visiting my blog, please come back again, any 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!
Saturday, 21 February 2009
Dog Portrait, Skye
I did say I would be all over the place!!! This is Skye, a lovely springer spaniel (my favourite dog even though I have just got a german shepherd!!!) and she is to be a birthday present for a client. Isn't she beautiful. I love spaniels, they are fluffy and cuddly looking but hard working dogs, no beater would be without one of these or a lab, they are one of the most hard working dogs and go out in all winds and weathers and stand up to any challenge. I had started to work out each area in full, I started with the right eye but then decided to work all the underlying areas first, I'm really pleased with how far I got in the time I worked and think I've got it all in the right places.
Also yet again it was a lovely day, all the rabbits and guinea pigs were out in their pens between 10am and 6pm, they had a lovely day and as usual here are a few shots of the garden, sorry to keep putting these in, I find them amazing, I love my life in the country and think maybe someone somewhere may be interested!
And some of the muscovy ducklings and Mum felt it was warm enough for a sunbathe....
...and it's a good job Willow is duck and chicken friendly, she just gallops past them now as though they are just part of the scenery, just what I wanted, all she and Gypsy do is search each pen for the odd missed egg, luckily I get out there before they do so they get no extra treats!!!
And Willow and I decided we would walk to the bottom of the garden, this is inside the hedge by quite a bit so it gives you some idea of how good my eyesight should be to see the ducks and chickens at the bottom of the garden!!! Willow is actually strolling in the orchard about half way up the photo. She got bored waiting for me and decided to wander off on her own.
I'm not sure what I'll be up to art wise tomorrow, Sunday will be quite a busy day for visitors with 3 different sets turning up and our tesco delivery, we are far too lazy (read busy for that) to go shopping plus I have cleaned all the carpets downstairs so it should be upstairs and fishtank cleaning tomorrow, it could be a busy day I think!!!
Ooh and I forgot to mention I have akso drawn out Patch ready to start now aswell, I had already got the basic shape down but it's now more detailed so I did have a good day!
Please visit here for a chance to win your wildlife image as a piece of art.
Thanks for visiting my blog, please come back again, any comments are very welcomeIf 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!
Friday, 20 February 2009
Cat Portrait, Elle
A very bad piccy I'm afraid due to my camera situation, I've managed to charge up the kodak camera but it lasts about three shots so I don't even get time to turn off the flash! I had hoped to have gotten a bit further with this but managed to catch a sickness bug including a bad headache so I couldn't look at the portrait until this evening.
I managed to get some fresh air today though, it was quite a nice day plus fresh air does me the world of good. I suffer terribly with travel sickness, by the time I get to the place we are working at for my day job, I'm sometimes a pale shade of green, as we travel there I find I cannot talk and need the window down but as soon as I get a good lung full of fresh air I feel so much better and it was the same case today, my headache was better after a while being outside. During the course of my rehabilitation I took some pics (only a few before those batteries went flat)
Of course the now ever popular Willow picture, she is turning out to be quite a poser now, those ears are little big though, I think they are satellite dishes!
And the action shot, Zac has finally relented and made friends with Willow, although he is a little reserved and not as mad as he is with Gypsy but as soon as rough and tumbles start he does join in.
And the tractor gets a lick of paint, Ronnie is hard at work restoring his latest toy!
Please visit here for a chance to win your wildlife image as a piece of art.
Thanks for visiting my blog, please come back again, any 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!
Wednesday, 18 February 2009
NO CAMERA
It's all gone a bit pear shaped today, I have completed more on Elle's portrait but I cannot find the charger for my nikon slr so I thought I'd use my work camera just to give you a bit of an update but I've left it in the work's truck, I do have an old kodak camera but the batteries are flat on that as well and will take until the morning to fully charge up, alas I have no photos to show you of my portrait today, after all those sorry sad excuses, here are a couple of images which have been entered into my wildlife competition, don't forget you can win your image as an art print, all you have to do is email me your picture!
Puppy Training
Willow started puppy training on Monday and she was a little star, I've already taught her to sit, stay, lie down and come to her name so she was just brilliant at that, the only thing I hadn't already shown her was to walk on a lead simply because she is just never on a lead, this has put her about a bit and I think she views it as punishment! All of the other puppies in the class were border collies and they were all a bit manic, Willow just laid down on the floor and went to sleep, good job I was paying attention then wasn't it!?! I've now started to train her with a whistle as we travel huge distances over the course of a day at work, so I want her to be able to find me and come back if she ever does get a bit lost, she's very good though so far, she just follows me around from tree to tree but this may change as she gets older so I want to be able to stop her from wandering too far especially as we are in the middle of sheep, deer and very large boar! I've also discovered that even though she is going to look like a mean and nasty dog, she is in fact a bit of a coward, if she meets a dog she doesn't know she has a little bark and hides behind me, I was told at training to try to encourage her to meet and greet dogs but I actually think it would be better if she does remain a little aloof so she cannot be accused of something she hasn't done. She tried to play with a little terrier this afternoon, he growled at her so she hid behind me then went to sleep!
I'll be continuing with Elle's portrait tonight so will let you have another sneak preview of that tomorrow when my camera crisis is over!
Please visit here for a chance to win your wildlife image as a piece of art.
Thanks for visiting my blog, please come back again, any 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!
Monday, 16 February 2009
Cat Portrait, Elle
*****
And so to the day job....
This is where we have been working, we have been around this area marking oak since the snow, it looked very different today in all the sunshine, I was actually in my t-shirt where it was quite warm, last week I had on thermal socks trying to keep them from going numb in the snow!
And this is Willow heading back to the truck for a well earned sleep. She was very good today until she was put in to rest, she only works part-time at the moment as she is still a puppy so has to have a sleep, instead she howled and yapped until she was let out. She starts proper puppy training tonight so I'll let you know how she gets on when I next update my blog.
Please also have a look at my picture of the day, this was Ronnie's Christmas present, a fordson tractor, mine was Willow, I expect most other people got mobile phones, necklaces, rings, all the normal things, not us!
Plus I received another blog award
which is wonderful, from the very talented Debbie Flood and please take the time to visit her blog, I love the horse and carriage watercolour painting she has on it, I am supposed to list 7 things I like but I have already done that and I have to stand by my choices plus I have to pass on this award to 7 peoples blogs I like, I've already done that too, however there were a few more I wanted to add to my list so I'm sort of cheating I suppose and want to pass the award to
and Kathleen Coy
I only added three so I don't feel too much as though I've abused the chance of adding extra blogs I like/love to my list!!!! Take 5 minutes to visit these blogs and you'll see why I enjoy them so much.
Please visit here for a chance to win your wildlife image as a piece of art.
Thanks for visiting my blog, please come back again, any 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!
Sunday, 15 February 2009
Cat Portrait, Elle
Please visit here for a chance to win your wildlife image as a piece of art.
Thanks for visiting my blog, please come back again, any 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!
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