Pet Portraits and Wildlife Art

Hooray!!!!! I've actually finished this dog portrait now, at one point I thought it would end up on my ever growing pile of half finished work, I keep telling myself I will go back to them but I think we all know that will not happen so perhaps I need to clear them all out so I don't feel so guilty about them!
Anyway, this was quite a large dog portrait and it did take some effort to fill it in, pencils do not have the greatest coverage, in fact it's akin to using a ball point pen I think so I'm pleased will my staying power at least.

And news on Cyril....
Just for you Liz, unfortunately Cyril escaped just before Christmas leaving his sparring partner Shizzle behind and made a mad dash after bouncing from the head of the lady looking after him. We've spent almost two weeks looking for him, I travelled quite a distance each day due to holidays to look for him and feed Shizzle, but it seems Cyril has decided he's a wild animal after all and would rather be in the trees with his kith and kin. I was devastated at first as was the lady who was taking excellent care of him, but all said and done, this was eactly what was meant to happen, it just happened before we planned it. For a couple of days I had terrible thoughts about him starving to death as he'd have no store of nuts but I work for the Forestry Commission and they have a never ending battle with squirrels as they chew the bark from trees for food, well there are trees everywhere so there's no problem there, then I worried about the snow, well who heard of squirrels being wiped out because of snow! Cyril was nice and fat before his break for freedom, in fact probably fatter than any wild squirrel so I should imagine he's living the life of Riley now and finding himself a girlfriend for the spring. We have left all manner of squirrels traps and nuts out for him just in case he does decide to put in an appearance but I'm very doubtful now as he is a wild creature after all.
All in all I think that he's had the best start, he was he size of an egg without fur when the cat delivered him to the door step without much chance at all, so after I fed him up and Alex has looked after him so well I'm confident he's chewing on a beech tree somewhere!
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!