Pet Portraits and Wildlife Art

I'm back on the case with competition winner Charlie, I've now completed his body and have started on the background. I need to add a little more detail to his rope toy for more definition but I hope to be posting this to his lucky owner by the end of the week.

I have now added more background to this portrait and had wanted to fade the colour out to nothing at the edges, this just does not look right to my eyes so I will be completely filling in the background right up to the edge of the mount. I'm sure this portrait will be completed over the weekend so I'll update with the final shot very soon.

And here it is, I've completed the background with a pale green which will meet the edges of the mount. All that remains now is to cut it to size, mount and post it to Keren, Charlie's owner.

This is my second portrait of Mickey in this pose due to my damaging the original, I began by putting down layers in a brown shade to give myself an idea of where everything should be (see above), I also had began work on Mickey's head at this point, so far I had only used about three colours on his head but more are added as the stages progress.

Due the ease of use pencils provide I can work virtually anywhere on the portrait due to no drying times being required so when I get bored with one area I simply move to a new one. Above I began to add the grass, I wanted to put in blades of grass against Mickey's leg to make it look more realistic as it would be impossible to add green over the brown fur at later stages.

I then began working down Mickey's back, as I have said before Mickey is very shiny so I had to ensure I left his highlights very pale in comparison with his main colouring.

Here again I added some more grass, working around Mickey's legs and body, I also added several layers of a darker brown in some areas, then I returned to the highlighted areas to burnish to give Mickey's coat it's real glossiness.

I've now completed Mickey's tail and back leg and added grass all around to give a more 3d effect. I will go back to add clumps of grass and sign the portrait and possibly add a little more grass, I will need to walk away from the portrait for a while before I decide.

After a second look at Mickey's picture and after speaking to his owners I decided to add more grass, it has turned out to have provided more contrast against Mickey's white tummy and also makes the ground look flatter. Plus if you look closely at all of the images above you can see I have taken Mickey's final image at a different time of day as the colours a little blander, what a difference it makes.

I have received the following comments from Mickey owners, they were very pleased with the portrait....

"Hi Karie

Just to confirm the portrait was delivered by 09:00am this morning, well what can we say "Its brilliant " its like Mickey is here with us , the only question I do have is that the portrait is not signed by you, if any you deserve the credit for such a fantastic piece of art.

By having your signature on the portrait will only encourage friends and family to follow suit when they wish to have a portrait of their pet done, you are a very talented artist who will thrive.

Once again we are very pleased with your work.

All the best

Terry & Lorraine"

Mickey's portrait is in fact signed in amongst the grass, but it so very motivating and reassuring when a customer is more than happy with a portrait. Thanks Terry and Lorraine for your kind words.

I began by drawing in the basic outline of Ollie, as this is only my second horse commission I am still a little unsure of a horse's anatomy so wanted to make sure all the muscles etc were in the correct place. At this point I used four different colours to start to get the correct colouring and depth, I had not put in high and low lights so there were to be several more layers added later.

Below you can see I moved across to Ollie's cheek, I wanted to make sure I was getting the shape of his head correct. I added a few more layers here to the original four colours, I added a darker brown, some brown black to create more shadows plus I burnished a little to start to show up the sheen on his fur. Still a long way to go at this point though.
Below I started to add a little of the black background, this made a major difference to the look of the portrait as it made Ollie's colours stand out much more, it created a really good contrast. I also worked on Ollie's ears which were very pricked and apparently a good indicator of his personality. A very alert horse by all accounts.

Unfortunately as this was such a rush job I had to take the final pictures at night time under lights, as you can see it makes a massive difference to the colours and shine of the portrait. I am reluctant to alter the colours with a photo shop type programme though as I'm not really sure how to do it for one but you can see the true colours of the portrait from the updates above. Ollie's portrait was collected very early in the morning so due to Autumn beginning to creep around the corner the light was not suitable in the morning to take a better shot anyway.

Anyway Ollie has now gone off to his owner for her birthday, back to the drawing board.

As for the day job, this Red Marley, today we were in a patch of pine with bramble and fern up as far as our shoulders and beyond in some places, believe it or not Dave is in this shot above waving at me as I couldn't even see where he was, got a few thorns to remove now!! You can just see Dave's hand and Andrew's slasher in the image below.

But at the bottom was the lovely ride shown below, then of course we had to walk all the way back up for lunch, nevermind.

I have spent the afternoon working on Charlie, more of his forelegs have been completed and I have began to work on his toy (and what a toy it is, twisted ropes in pink and blue). He is now starting to take shape and look more real. Lots more to do though!!!

A bit more of Charlie's face has been completed, the far side of his face is very dark so I need good lighting to be able to see his other eye properly.

A bit more work on Charlie, I have actually blocked in some of the white and pale grey on his legs but until further work takes place these paler colours will not show up.

Work has now started on Charlie the springer spaniel, I am now going to make a concerted effort to leave my website alone SEO wise for a while as all my little fiddles and refinements have not really gained me much higher rankings (it may do over time) but I am doing this instead of portraits which should be my main focus of attention. So far I'm quite pleased with Charlie's progress but as you can see there is plenty more to get on with.

The latest update of child and sprocker, almost finished now and will be framed for delivery very soon. I've gone back to add darker areas on the jacket now and I just need to complete the dog.

Meet Hector, a very good looking black labrador. Hector came to visit today to have his photo taken for a future portrait. As yet his owners are unsure whether they want a head or full body portrait. They were the best type of clients to have as they brought plenty of images with them as well as Hector himself so I was also able to take a few shots of my own plus he was very well behaved and not at all camera shy so it was a pleasure to meet them all. I'm pretty sure his will be a graphite portrait but thankfully this one is a Christmas present so the deadline is way off...phew!!!

And... our 11 muscovy ducklings had a race around the garden today, they are a bit of an odd bunch as they chase each other around which I've never seen ducklings do before, when one falls over the rest pile on top in a bid to overtake, perhaps we should place bets!!! More than a few of them got stuck in an old belfast sink when they took a dip but couldn't get back out so I got a bit wet and messy launching the rescue operation.

Back to the drawing board....

I've lots of other bits and pieces to update but have not got time at the moment so will get back to update as soon as possible.

A few more pics of the horse portrait, things are going great guns with this one as you can see. I've completed the background with black pastel and charcoal and then fixed it with spray. All that is left to do is the neck (all I say, it's probably the same amount of work again due to the muscles, shine and tone of Roli's neck)

Also I have been busy with the sprocker and child portrait in graphite pencils, so far I have the main of the child down but I will need to revisit for more shading and blending at a later stage.

All in all a very busy evening and quite productive. Sometimes it's a shame I have to go to my day job!!! Talking of which we were marking douglas fir trees on the same steep bank as yesterday but as it was reasonably dry today I managed to remain upright, I think I need ropes to tie myself to the trees to hoist myself up and lower myself down like abseiling!!! It really makes my legs ache so I presume it must be quite good exercise, a little compensation I suppose. Luckily there is a small cafe near Hopewell Colliery, a visitor centre where tourists can visit an underground mine and see how it worked, see the pics below of the old mine workings.

And I have to say I'm pleased with the progress so far. I am also really pleased to be able to use an image of a spaniel taken by Greg Knight of http://www.ruralshots.com/ as another example of a pencil pet portrait from a photo.

...And the bad news is... I damaged the portrait of Mickey the springer spaniel. I was within a hair's breadth of completing him aswell, isn't it always the way. I had drawn Mickey's tail incorrectly and erased it a little too harshly damaging the surface of the portrait. I have tried to rework the area to no avail but luckily Terry and Lorraine, Mickey's owners, are being very patient in allowing me to start over again. Oh dear, what a disaster, I was more than a little upset, so much so I nearly had a cigarette after giving up three years ago!!!

And finally I have started work on the sprocker and child so I will update this as soon as possible.

Back to the Forestry work, today we worked like soldiers on a steep bank (felt like a mountain) in the pouring rain and by a busy main road, who says trees are all glamour. I wore my waterproofs which are made of rubber looking like an alien from Doctor Who and fell over no less than a dozen times, I gave up counting at this point as it became a bit embarrassing!!!

I was about half way up the bank when this photo was taken, apparantly it's good exercise and it really does fell like it now, I ache all over!!!

Charlie will soon have his own web page and visitors will be able to watch his portrait in progress.

I have also received more photos from Mickey's owners to complete his tail correctly plus to undertake another commission of him for them, in all I have about a dozen photos of Mickey which is ideal to work with for a pet portrait as I can use one main image to work from with the others for colour, eyes and fur details.