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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Tuesday, 25 January 2011
Animal Portraits, Jimmy
20:28 | 
Posted by
artbykarieann |
This is Jimmy's portrait almost finished now. This is to be framed so I may have to remove add some of the cushion to fit it nicely into a mount and frame. It is pretty awful trying to take photos with the poor lighting (I know I keep on about it) but my new daylight bulb isn't really too good. I did have a rather expensive one before which I managed to smash with my head when I leant over to pick up something and ended up with bits in my hair so I bought another version but they aren't a patch on the first type so now I have an internet search on to get the same brand again!
Talking of art problems, my electric pencil sharpener has just about bitten the dust, I stupidly decided to sharpen a pastel pencil and it just destroyed it. oh well more shopping to do! And as I'm online I may as well order some replacement pencils, this ingres paper is eating up my pencils so fast I'm reduced to stubs of some!!!
I've also made a fantastic start with Bonnie's portrait and provided the light is better than today, I should be able to post an update tomorrow (I may well post a quick update on Facebook so do look on there if you want a sneak preview)
Labels:
Saturday, 22 January 2011
Animal Portraits, Jimmy
Sorry for the shine on the picture, it's evening and taken under a light bulb.
Just to show you how far I've managed to get with this, lots of work on the cushion to be done and the front paw most of which will end up in shadow anyway.
And I'm still liking this pastel paper with coloured pencils. I've found Derwent artists are not smooth enough for blending on this much tooth but the coloursoft pencils are doing a grand job. I've dug out my blending pencil and can't wait to start smudging the background I just have to be patient and get ALL of the colour down before I start to do this otherwise it could look a bit patchy.
We've been so busy out in the garden. The birds have had their pen moved and rebuilt (no mean task when it's bigger than a football pitch) and we are to collect a pair of silver pheasants in the near future to add to our collection just in time for the breeding season.
Next job is to rotovate the bottom orchard for the veg patch (we have two 42 foot polytunnels to go in) but thankfully the rotovators aren't in working order yet so I may get a few days reprieve! I do intend to take photos but I get dragged down the bottom garden and it's all go with no time to fetch the camera!
Tuesday, 18 January 2011
Animal Portraits, Jimmy
In keeping with most other people already this year, my New Year's resolutions have already been dismissed (good job there's the rest of the year to try again then) but as per my last post, I said I'd try new mediums. So off I trotted to the virtual art shops and bought myself some pastel paper. I thought this would be the best way to break myself in, pastels are probably the most similar medium to pencils, non liquid, and handled in the same way so in my mind a good place to start.
So I have my pastel paper in front of me, I look at my pastels, look back at the pencils, look at the pastels again, push them to one side and grab my pencils. I thought it would be a change just to have a coloured background and I've never used such a toothy paper so in my opinion, almost half way to my first New Year's resolution (what a cop out I hear you cry, well yes it is in a word!)
However, my little cowardly steps have made me realise that this paper is just amazing for pencils, it's also quicker to work with as the base colour is already in place and although I am able to add more layers because of the surface, I don't need to add as many anyway and I'm going great guns. Jimmy is appearing on the page at a rate of knots. So I'm actually quite pleased with myself for discovering this and I'm sure I will be trying this again.
So, a little about Jimmy, my most unusual pet portrait to date (I think he beat the cows). Jimmy was found wandering down a road and duly rescued. Found posters did not lead to his owners coming forward so he remained with his rescuers. It turned out on the same day another ferret was rescued but a third more unfortunate creature was hit by a car.
So Jimmy was a very lucky little ferret who became a bit of a house pet. His mum had to tape cupboards shut when he was about and he had a lovely little habit of stealing and helping himself to things and hiding them all over the place!
Sunday, 9 January 2011
Pet Portraits Aims and Goals for 2011
Well another New Year has already started and I think I've been bumbling along for a couple of years now so it's time I got myself more organised. I aiming to reach the following goals to see if these small but significant changes can help me improve further.
1.Update my blog more frequently...
It seems to get neglected or I am distracted doing other things. I can make a million excuses and tell you I have been working on my webiste (please note I am rising in the search engine rankings quite nicely now but still more to be done) but really I do forget to update here as often as I should so that's my first goal of many
2. Visit other blogs of interest...
Aside from this, I used to find time to visit fellow artists' blogs but this has also moved to the back burner so this is another enjoyable pastime I undertook that has fallen by the wayside so there's the next thing
3. Try new mediums...
I've also realised that of all the mediums out there, I've been very reluctant to try out anymore and have stayed rather static. I've dabbled in the past long long ago but stuck with what I know best. I really think this is a good idea in one way as you can only get better at what you do but the major issue with pencils is that they are just so time consuming. Large portraits take an age and lots of arm ache and elbow grease so I'm going to be brave and attempt some other mediums
4. Learn more SEO and web design techniques to improve my internet presence...
I've also started to get the hang of the web side of things and my site and blog have been majorly overhauled and improved but I'm still at the beginning of this long journey so I intend to continue to update my website, even maybe another design if I feel brave enough and to continue with SEO, I've resisted the idea of asking someone else to do it for me as it's a never ending and expensive cycle which I can ill afford so I need to be more savvy in this area
5. Be more organised, pro-active and focused...
And the most important undertaking I need to get to grips with is time management. I am so easily distracted, although some things do have to be done, I never seem to sit at art or my website for long. I do work full time (but with the current economic crisis bearing down on civil servants this could change), I've also got a zoo full of animals I need to feed, exercise and fuss (especially my dogs) but I find myself wandering around the internet without any aim, reading newspapers and not really doing anything but wasting time!
6. Exhibit more often...
And finally, something I really should get to grips with but would rather be a visitor than an exhibitor, is to attend some fairs, shows and enter competitions just to improve my techniques and internet presence
Not any small list, and I've probably shot myself in the foot and will achieve none of these goals, if they are goals, maybe just pushing myself in the right direction!
1.Update my blog more frequently...
It seems to get neglected or I am distracted doing other things. I can make a million excuses and tell you I have been working on my webiste (please note I am rising in the search engine rankings quite nicely now but still more to be done) but really I do forget to update here as often as I should so that's my first goal of many
2. Visit other blogs of interest...
Aside from this, I used to find time to visit fellow artists' blogs but this has also moved to the back burner so this is another enjoyable pastime I undertook that has fallen by the wayside so there's the next thing
3. Try new mediums...
I've also realised that of all the mediums out there, I've been very reluctant to try out anymore and have stayed rather static. I've dabbled in the past long long ago but stuck with what I know best. I really think this is a good idea in one way as you can only get better at what you do but the major issue with pencils is that they are just so time consuming. Large portraits take an age and lots of arm ache and elbow grease so I'm going to be brave and attempt some other mediums
4. Learn more SEO and web design techniques to improve my internet presence...
I've also started to get the hang of the web side of things and my site and blog have been majorly overhauled and improved but I'm still at the beginning of this long journey so I intend to continue to update my website, even maybe another design if I feel brave enough and to continue with SEO, I've resisted the idea of asking someone else to do it for me as it's a never ending and expensive cycle which I can ill afford so I need to be more savvy in this area
5. Be more organised, pro-active and focused...
And the most important undertaking I need to get to grips with is time management. I am so easily distracted, although some things do have to be done, I never seem to sit at art or my website for long. I do work full time (but with the current economic crisis bearing down on civil servants this could change), I've also got a zoo full of animals I need to feed, exercise and fuss (especially my dogs) but I find myself wandering around the internet without any aim, reading newspapers and not really doing anything but wasting time!
6. Exhibit more often...
And finally, something I really should get to grips with but would rather be a visitor than an exhibitor, is to attend some fairs, shows and enter competitions just to improve my techniques and internet presence
Not any small list, and I've probably shot myself in the foot and will achieve none of these goals, if they are goals, maybe just pushing myself in the right direction!
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