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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Still Life2 years ago
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2015 6"Squared show8 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, 2 January 2010
Dog Portraits, Willow, Gypsy and Zac
10:38 | 
Posted by
artbykarieann |
Apologies yet again for the poor photo, although the weather has improved the lighting is awful. It's not my fault honest! Anyway, this is where I've got to and the end is in sight now, thankfully.
I've actually learnt a few things doing this portrait
1. Never leave a piece half way through, I mixed up colours as a result and it did take a concerted effort to 'fine tune' them all
2. Never use the back of drafting film, I know a lot of others do, but all of my leaves were on the back, it was supposed to give a distant quality but it made them look very flat so I went back over them all on the front anyway, what a lot of work that was!
3. Derwent studios give a kind of painterly effect on drafting film. I used them on the paving stones and they do look like watercolour (apologies to all those professional watercolour artists out there, I expect you are shouting at my post now)
4. Never try such a bold background again! I think I'd go back to paper for another portrait of this size and complexity, then for the background I could use pastels and cover the space quicker.
5. Don't do a background so intricate and monotonous next time, those leaves felt like being lost in the jungle!
6. Never work with outsized portraits again, I had to search high and low for a frame and then it was a very long winded job to get a mount cut, and I wanted a double mount plus it's slightly too small, that'll teach me!
7. Give up the day job, I can't remember when I started this portrait, I think it was July last year, I know I've done many things in between but this is ridiculous, I need to give up my day job to increase my work rate!
8. Leave portraits until a pet is fully grown, Willow was only 7 months old when I took her photo, she is now coming 14 months and looks much more grown up, I feel I need to do another portrait of her to keep up to date!
9. Forethought! If I'd have known I was going to put them on a patio I would have liked to add watering cans, plant pots etc but I just beavered away without any planning, I will spend more time with the next one sorting out the compostion rather than just going for broke!
So I'd best get back to it, I have to go back to the day job on Monday and I would like to get things finished by then and start something new to put up at my display, tell you more about that soon.
Hope you all had a happy New Year! Oh and well done so far Oakley in the voting for a custom pet portrait, keep up the good work Bonnie!
If you like my work please take the time to leave me a comment or become a follower. If you would like to win a pet portrait of your dog, cat, horse or any other pet please see my new competition. The competition has closed for this year but there will be a new one in 2010. Join in the fun and vote for this year's winner by following the links here
If you are interested in commissioning me please visit my pet portrait artist website or my wildlife artist website
Now visit my picasa photo album to see completed pieces of art.
Thanks for visiting!
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1 comments:
Hi Karie-Ann - I do so admire you for putting in all the hard work on this one and even though you have a long list of DON'Ts, it was so worth the effort! I'm looking forward to more posts like this in 2010!
PS How's Cyril?
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