Pet Portraits and Wildlife Art

Well it's 5 o'clock in the morning and I feel as though I'm going mad, really it's only 4 o'clock but we lost an hour for the great British summertime (hopefully it will arrive this year). I sometimes suffer terribly, I wake in the middle of the night and can't get back to sleep, sometimes I switch on the television, sometimes I wander around the house or garden but I've given up on both of those and after being awake for several hours I've decided to use my brain, it's too late to go back to sleep really, I get up at 6 to feed rabbits, guinea pigs, birds etc so if I drift off now I'm sure I'll be lost in space all day. Luckily I am finishing work early today to collect the new truck and I intend to sleep all the way there!!! Anyway, back to the important stuff, this is where I've got to with my leopard, it only looks a small update but the portrait itself is really very big, A2, in fact completely covering the sheet so I am actually making quite good progress! The colours on here are a little better than the previous shot, I've read comments about difficulties taking images, however I'm not sure if it is actually the taking them, or if it's my lack of photo-editing knowledge which may be letting me down. The thing is if I start a course or learn how to use it, it becomes another thing which takes me away from my art, so I'm stuck with it for now.

I'm also very pleased to say we have 2 possibly 3 broody geese, so we built three nests for them yesterday afternoon and made them little areas where they will not be disturbed, not knowing which of the geese will be best (usually Mildred sits for about 2 months, she's like an old lady now but for the past few years her embden eggs have been infertile and she sits until they explode underneath her, bit smelly! But she is relentless with her sitting and mothering so may yet do us proud with the toulouse eggs) so we have split the toulouse eggs (17 now) between them. If they all hatch it'll be bedlam in the goose pen!!!

And dear Willow was a bit manic yesterday, she did an extra hour at work to try to tire her out but still insisted on rolling around the lawn with Gypsy after work! I need to build her up for the summer as it'll be too warm to let her have a sleep in the truck and it is actually cooler working underneath the trees plus usually there is a brook or stream for her to get into, it's just trying not to overdo the exercise, she seems to want to do more so perhaps a half hour extra every other day for the time being will build her up. It's hard to believe she's only 4 months old, she's nearly as big as Zac the spaniel now and he's a big dog, she can floor him already by copying Gypsy' technique of biting feet! I'll get a new photo of them tomorrow and you'll see how big she is now.

by Have brush will travel so thank you very very much for that. I have to name 7 things I love and pass it on to 7 other blogs which I feel are deserving but as I am being told to relinquish my computer to my other half I shall leave those tasks until tomorrow!

I've been hard at work on the leopard portrait, as you can see the whiskers are quite prominent now plus I've added lots of layers underneath the chin to give the impression of shape and shadow, I may need to add more shadows but until I work more on the shoulder area I'm not sure how dark it should be. As I've said before I work by seeing how one area or shape looks next to another, do they join, is it darker, does the fur go in the same direction, probably more how a builder would look at house plans! Not very flamboyant my technique but I find I know what I'm doing most of the time!

Aren't they cute!

Just a small update to continue with my techniques post from yesterday, I've continued to work on the body of the leopard since then. It has taken 4 more layers of various browns plus the brown/black and black for the dark fur for this area. I have used short pencil strokes to give the illusion of fur and then I also went back over with a white and pale cream in between the fur to give even more definition to the strands. You can see this in more detail here...

...plus you can see I've worked some whiskers. Some artists indent the page for their whiskers but I find it easier to use a very sharp pencil (the undercoat colour) and draw around them before I fully put down the undercoat. As I add each layer of progressively darker colour I carefully go around them. Once I have enough layers in place I add definition to the whiskers with a sharp white pencil (derwent artists are good to sharpen to a point) and then if I have accidently gone onto the whiskers with any colour I can use a stabilo white which goes over everything to ensure they stand out.

And just for Jane, I use a good heavy cartridge paper, I don't use the expensive stuff as I find it just isn't really that much better, if you go wrong, you go wrong no matter what the paper plus it doesn't make you better at painting or drawing etc but obviously the cheaper the paper the less useful it is so go for a medium price range. I have tried bristol board and drafting film but found these too smooth for my use, I like to add lots of layers and almost blend the colours so I need a rough textured surface. I will be trying watercolour paper at some point as this seems to be very rough so may be ideal for me. I've also tried mount card and depending on where it comes from, this sometimes has a medium rough surface so I did find it quite good to use plus it comes in a multitude of colours and you can buy a single piece at a time or in bulk. As for pencils, I'm a Derwent girl, I've used studio - good for smooth surfaces, artists - loved these until I got a full set of coloursoft and they are my favourite of all. I find them nice and waxy so they glide on and blend quite well. I do have some other brands but nothing in any numbers and I'm sure I'll stick with the coloursoft as I know exactly how to handle them in my own style.

A few other bits and bobs...

Willow and I are off to a puppy party at the Vets tonight. All I hope is that the cakes are for me and not the dog!!! It's just to promote their clinic and ensure your puppy is well looked after plus Willow will get to roll around on the floor with lots of other, much smaller no doubt, yapping little doggies for a few hours!

She has also started to develop her sense of smell, twice today she smelt deer out but luckily she didn't chase them for the chance of a biscuit, I hope it stays that way!

I'm hoping to get some more deer videos tomorrow, a herd of about 50 deer crossed the road in front ouf our truck this afternoon in a place we hadn't worked yet and we will be there tomorrow so I'll be at the ready with my camera, we also saw another herd of about 20 as well but that seemed a bit disappointing after the huge herd. Also we noted some 'chewing' from the base up to about a metre up a tree, this is a sign of wild boar activity so I might be wearing running shoes tomorrow instead of steel toe capped boots!!!

Plus just a reminder for my wildlife competition, I need images!!! If you have the copyright to a wildlife image and would like a chance to see it as a piece of art plus receive a limited edition print of it, get sending them in to me at pencilportraits@rock.com... Not long to go now so get moving! I've also made headway with my new wildlife art website, the only problem is I have not a lot of wildlife art to put on it so I need to get my fingers working to the bone before it can go live!

After receiving a comment from Jane about my techniques I realised that although I post my updates regularly to show progress I don't actually go into the detail of how I work most of the time. Although I've already shown some work on the leopard portrait, I still repeat the same routine and exercises all over the portrait area by area so although this post is not quite from the beginning it will show how I work with coloured pencils from start to finish.You can click on the image above to enlarge it to see in more detail how I work.

I spend a long time drawing the portrait out in graphite, I do not do rough sketches first I simply work on the portrait straight away and I will start again if I go wrong. I am not at all anatomically trained so I cannot rely on my own knowledge about how an animal's structure or body shape are in real life, I simply draw what I see. I begin with the face and eyes working outwards, exactly the same as I do when I begin to use colour. I have never documented this stage before because usually the pencil strokes are so light I couldn't photograph them but I also think people just want to see what likeness I achieve or the finished portrait. The light strokes also allow me to erase and re-draw until I am happy with the details. I really think I am not of an artist's mind either as I cannot see things which are not there, I can only use the information I am given and approach each portrait almost as a plan, colours and shapes of those colours are all I can use to get everything into proportion (I have even used rulers before now to get them correct). The image above has been darkened to show up the graphite pencil marks and on the back of the leopard you can see the shapes I have drawn representing the black/brown markings (like I said it does look like painting by numbers), this is how I draw the outline of everything, I am constantly thinking 'that almost lines up with the next bit of black, that curves back around there to touch that bit' and so on. Once I am happy with the outline and shapes I begin with the colours, again looking at the back area you can see I have used a pale to mid brown for the undercoating, I always put the colour on in the direction of the fur, and at this point I can still see the graphite guidelines underneath. You will see I also used this technique on the head but using a much paler undercoat as the fur there was lighter. I then build up layers from palest to darkest until the graphite is covered but also until I achieve the correct depth of colour, I can still go back with a white pencil to lighten anything so long as I don't use too many layers, when this happens layers of colour start to peel off so each layer is as light and delicate as the undercoat you can see.

Anyway here is the portrait so far without any enhancements to show up the graphite.

Back to other news, I had my first aid course today and had to leave poor Willow home alone (well with Gypsy anyway) and expected to return to a sofa torn to pieces and puddles and disasters, but I am so glad to report my girl was very good, she and Gypsy must have dozed on the sofa and were very well behaved, I'm quite impressed!

Anyway, just thought I'd add a pic of one of my fish tanks to help you pass some time this lovely Wednesday evening!!!

This is my 'secret' project I have been working on, this is another leopard portrait which has already taken hours of work, it actually took two days just to draw outlines. It's quite a big piece, A2 in size and will keep me busy for sometime yet. I thought I'd go for broke and set myself a challenge, I've recently joined the UKCPS (United Kingdom Colour Pencils Society) and want to add a page of my own to their website so this hopefully will be one of the pieces, plus I have started to build a new website just for wildlife art but until I have more pieces it will look a bit poor!!!. I wasn't going to add this to my blog until it was completed but if I didn't it would mean I wouldn't be updating my blog as much as normal but by blogging it, it now means I will make the effort to get on with it otherwise I will look very unprofessional! Unless I have a deadline or a target I tend to leave things to sit around for weeks on end and that will not help me get my art 'out there'! Although the work I have completed so far with this portrait does look very small it is in fact quite an area and has taken many layers to achieve the depth of colour and I've worn down pencils already (good excuse to go art supplies shopping anyway). Luckily I am patient with portraits, I have patience for nothing else whatsoever except animals so I will plod along with this and hopefully add more updates as I go along. The reference image is from Marie Provencher, see her link to the right of this post. She has kindly allowed me to use another of her images, she manages to get such superb photographs, I am so jealous.

As it's Mother's Day today we are all off to the pub for lunch and a few beers no doubt, thought I'd better put my update on before I drink the bar dry otherwise it could end up just jumbled nonsense!

After a very poor week for my portraits, I got myself back into the 'mode' today to get on with the lovely Patch. Yet again I spent the afternoon with Patch and the rugby on television, England won again so I think Patch must be a lucky mascot for them. Now I'm off to watch Ireland and Wales, I'm not saying anything about who I want to win, my Dad is a big supporter of Wales even thought he doesn't have a drop of welsh blood in his body but obviously he watched them in their hayday in the 70s and has always followed them, it's taken until now for them to have reached any sort of similar success so my Dad is going to shout for them this evening. Living as close to the Welsh border as we do there is always a 'mini war' over the rugby and I expect every rugby club will be packed out today.

And a few before and after shots....

This is where we have been working at the end of last week in first thinnings, as you can see it does get a bit difficult and goggles are high on my list of equipment. I have got stuck between trees working in places like this, the branches are bendy and springy so you force your way through and then the branches spring back and wack you all over the arms and face. Not a good job on a hot sunny day as less clothing equals more pain!!!

Just a quick pic of my baby, Willow. She's grown quite a lot in a few short weeks and weighs a tonne to put up into the back of the truck at work, on Ebay in a mo to get a dog ramp I think!!! She has acquired a few habits from Zac and Gypsy in that she now fetches her own eggs from the pens at the bottom of the garden, this was Gypsy's trick and then she would eat them, luckily Willow does swap her collection of eggs for a puppy treat and they have remained intact! Plus she has a liking for dustpans and brushes, I'm on my third brush and have lost the matching dustpan somewhere, she also likes to hoover up and relentlessy tries to catch the hoover, this was quite funny at first but now I could vacuum her up as well!

Also managed to collect quite a few toulouse eggs today which are now on Ebay, we already have a flock so really any more geese would just be silly (we have 14!) so hopefully someone somewhere might like to have some as pets as well, they are just lovely.

Plus I'm working on a secret art project too at the moment and cannot post any updates on it as yet but as soon as I can I will, plus I am taking work in progress shots for my blog and website so I'm not being lazy!

I've worked some more with Patch's portrait. Sometimes I wonder if it really is a good idea to show work in progress as I look back and think the work so far is nothing like the image I'm supposed to be working from. I've looked back at yesterday's post for Patch and even I thought it was so far from the mark any client wuld be horrified to have asked me to produce a portrait of their beloved pet!

Thankfully eventually things do begin to tie up and I think my latest update for Patch does look a better match for the reference image, phew!!!

This is so many more layers and so much more work just to get this far, I've gone back over layers to deepen the colours and show more shading, I find shading is what makes all the difference between a flat portrait and a much more realistic one and now I'm happier myself with how Patch is beginning to look. Patch has mainly white fur for the body so this will be mainly shadows and shading to get the body shape correct before adding the white! Sounds odd but I use the greys and pale shades to add the minor colours which appear in white fur (there are many believe it or not) then I go back over with a white pencil to pick out the highlights and create a more rounded and solid shape. As you can see the brighter colours on the face shown in my previous post have been dampened down with white to give Patch much more true to life coloured fur. At long last I'm happy with where this portrait has got to.

I have now added a links page to my blog, please see the headers at the top of the page if you are interested in exchanging links. I am happy to take links for blogs and websites but please add my link to your site first leaving me a comment of where it is and what your link details are.

And news from the goose pen....we have our first toulouse dewlap egg of the season, we found it yesterday in the straw and left it to encourage the other three females to lay, however Willow collected it for me and I caught her going up the lawn with her own very large easter egg. Thankfully she didn't crack it and about 5 minutes later she went to fetch a duck egg as well, again she was so careful it didn't crack, perhaps I have a new egg collector and I've done myself out of a job!!!!