Pet Portraits and Wildlife Art

And now the second zebra is starting to appear on this piece of wildlife art. This took a good 4 hours work to reach here from the last stage. This I think is why I love pencils, you can dot around from one area to the next without having to layer everything, no drying times and when you get bored with one bit, you move onto the next. I love their mohicans, a hair-do like theirs would have taken a few hours in front of the mirror and a pound of wax! Thankfully that fashion has now passed us by.

As for the tractor sale yesterday, I suppose you could call it successful, we bought 1 loader, 1 bucket for one of the tractors plus a rotavator for the garden. It took two trips to bring everything back and a lot of effort to get it into the back of the truck. The bucket was heaviest and took 4 people including myself to man-handle. Of course Willow came with us for the day and the farmer had forgotten to lock the gate into the next field so we went for a walk in long grass and she went beserk, running around like an idiot until she had to lie down, then she got in the brook and ran up and down it for about 20 minutes as well. I think she had a good day as well! We've got chicks everywhere today, I still have no idea what any of them are, but instead of taking snaps I decided to do some revamping of my website, now I feel a bit brain dead!

If you like my work please take the time to leave me a comment or become a follower (see bottom of page). If you would like to win a pet portrait of your dog, cat, horse or any other pet please see my new competition. It costs nothing to enter, all you require is internet access.

If you are interested in commissioning me please visit my pet portrait artist website or my wildlife artist website

Thanks for visiting!

Labels: wildlife art |

4 comments

Saturday, 9 May 2009

Zebras by Wildlife Artist Karie-Ann Cooper

08:10 |

Posted by artbykarieann |

At long last my zebra has got a nose so he can forage and sniff now to his heart's content! I've also started putting the second zebra in place on this piece of wildlife art and I am actually beginning to enjoy it. I do not have much art experience with horses so zebras are an even newer subject for me, but this one does look very well fed and in proportion at the moment so things are going well.

This is my family portrait I am about to start, it will be in graphite and will be just heads and shoulders from this photo which was taken at a wedding. So work will begin shortly!

Also we are off to yet another tractor auction this morning, hence my early post, I wonder what rubbish we can collect today! I am insisting on taking Willow, especially after her escapade with a very large bag of dog treats on Thursday but thankfully the weather is cooler today plus there is a stream she can jump into if needed.

We've got chicks everywhere now, they're hatching left, right and centre, unfortunately as they were all mixed up we have no idea which breeds they are until they get a bit older, it's an annual event now to guess the breeds of the new babies, we always get them wrong. Luckily we do know they are not pheasants as they take longer to hatch so that is a bit of a help! When the weather brightens up later I hope to get some pics to show you all.

If you are interested in commissioning me please visit my pet portrait artist website or my wildlife artist website

Thanks for visiting!

Labels: wildlife art |

3 comments

Thursday, 7 May 2009

Zebras by Wildlife Artist Karie-Ann Cooper

20:08 |

Posted by artbykarieann |

My zebra painting now almost has one leg, I'm sure I'll be working on the nose area soon, otherwise this will look a very odd piece of wildlife art!!! Anyway I am beginning to like this a little more now as it does look a bit more real than at the start so that is one bit of good news!

And, just to update you on my day, we had an outing to Stockhill and East Harptree in Bristol and Mendips today and stopped at a hotel on the way for a safety meeting, up behind the hotel perched very precariously on a steep and rocky hill were these little goats! I have to say they are braver than I am, there were several coaches of school children abseiling and rock climbing the very same cliff but I think I'll leave it to the professionals myself...the goats!!!!

The was the chimney at East Harptree which was rebuilt in the 1970s but it had been in operation for 20 years in the 1800s. Typcial of birds, all the ravens and rooks had thought they could build nests in this chimney and the inside was building up with bits of twigs and nesting materials where all had tried and failed to block the top of it for their bird's eye view nest!!! The area was and still is very rich in ore and this chimney had tunnels attached to it, maybe five turning back on each other to transport the steam from the hearth where the ore was heated so that any metals in the steam would have chance to cool down before reaching the chimney and fall on the floor to be collected and reclaimed rather than being allowed to escape into the atmosphere.
Unfortunately due to our trip being so far away and travelling by coach I had to leave Willow at home, however she did manage to keep herself very busy indeed and ate a 1.5 kilo bag of doggie biscuits all to herself. She must be a bit clever as she reached them from a shelf on the wall in the kitchen without touching anything alse, what a naughty girl she is, and I'll bet she's got tummy ache!!!

Plus I have received the award above from Twincedars so I have to thank her very much indeed and I will ponder which 7 blogs I will pass this onto for a day and then update you asap.

If you are interested in commissioning me please visit my pet portrait artist website or my wildlife artist website

Thanks for visiting!

Labels: wildlife art |

4 comments

Wednesday, 6 May 2009

Winning Wildlife Art Image

20:54 |

Posted by artbykarieann |

Well this is the winning wildlife image which was sent by Kim Roziere, there were some really lovely images to choose from and I may well choose another couple of images with the same prize for the entrants, that being a limited edition print of the finished piece. Well done Kim! Work will begin in due course!

And now for a few more pics I found on my camera, this was a lovely avenue of trees, again from our trip to Westonbirt Arboretum. Every year we have an educational outing where everyone is taken to some site of interest to our work in forestry. This was right up my street, I never would have thought trees could be interesting but the trees here were just enormous and well kept.

And this was a huge beech tree we found when working at a place near Viney Hill. We tried to measure the height but the little gadget we used gave up on us that day so we never knew how tall it was, all I can say was it was BIG!

And these are the boys, Dave and Andrew, doing what they do best, cleaning up a disaster before it ever happens!

And one of the more unusual locals at Parkhill!!! Theere were a few in a field and they did seem quite friendly and found us very interesting!

If you are interested in commissioning me please visit my pet portrait artist website or my wildlife artist website

Thanks for visiting!

Labels: wildlife art |

Sunday, 3 May 2009

Zebras by Wildlife Artist Karie-Ann Cooper

15:01 |

Posted by artbykarieann |

Well this is the start of my zebra wildlife art. I've used a blue card for backing at the moment as they are stood against a background of sky. I'm not sure if this will work out, as I seem to be better at close up fur so this may not be my strongest area. Nevertheless, we'll see how it goes!!!

Anyway, here is Willow asking that age old question 'does my bum look big in this?', unfortunately the answer is yes it does!!!

And just a couple of flowers and climbers from the garden, at long last it's starting to look a bit more colourful!

I'll update the leopard on the rocks next but as it's such a nice day I'm off outside to play with my rabbits and guinea pigs!

On the downside of things. I've managed to completely muck up my website, ah well, I had to rework it anyway, just now I have to do it all!!!!

If you are interested in commissioning me please visit my pet portrait artist website or my wildlife artist website

Thanks for visiting!

Labels: pets, wildlife art |

6 comments

Saturday, 2 May 2009

Can't upload images on blogger

15:02 |

Posted by artbykarieann |

Well I have lots of news and no way of sharing it with you.... I have started a wildlife portrait of a pair of zebras, I have got a family portrait commission to do and I've also done some work on the leopard on the rocks (I know I've even surprised myself with that one) plus I need to announce the winning image of my wildlife competition however each time I try to upload an image to my blog I am told I have failed and that I need to find an internet programme that will open my images. They are jpegs but when I try to upload them the screen says the name is 'image-upload-ajax-do' instead of the name I have given it and that I need to save it to my computer. Does anyone else have this problem? Is it just me? I thought I may have exceeded my storage limit for images but I'm not even a 10th of the way to being full so it's not that. I'm lost in cyber space at the moment and not sure what I can do! Being clever I even tried to upload an image which already exists on my blog but the same thing happened. Oh dear, I fear I may just drop off the end of the earth in blogland pretty soon!!! If anyone does have any theories please let me know, I've asked on the blogger help forum but got nowhere far very fast!!!

If you are interested in commissioning me please visit my pet portrait artist website or my wildlife artist website

Thanks for visiting!

Wednesday, 29 April 2009

Leopard by Wildlife Artist Karie-Ann Cooper

22:19 |

Posted by artbykarieann |

Well I'm going to call this finished for now, I'm sure I'll be crisping up a few details but really it's 99% completed now. I've really enjoyed this one, and during my work on this piece of wildlife art, I've discovered a few things that are a must...

1. Always use sharp pencils, this is not only a must for any pencil art but particularly for fur when details need to be so fine, but also because a dull blunt pencil seems to drag across drafting film leaving a poor covering of colour.

2. Wax based pencils are more difficult to use on drafting film, the pencils does not enable much layering, and although it is limited on film, oil based pencils seems to work better.

3. If your film gets dirty, simply wash it!!! I did have marks on the bottom of this piece, but I used a well known cleaning brand of wipes and cleaned all around the image. I did find though the cleaning agent on the wipe left a residue all over the film and I nearly had heart failure when it dried out, however after a little bit of experimenting, I found if I used the cleaning wipes (just water did not clean the areas at all) and then dried it with a tissue, the residue was removed and the film was left perfectly clean. If you miss a bit and find more residue just go back over it with a wet wipe and dry it again until you are satisfied.

4. Avoid using an eraser as this will prevent many colours being added after, the eraser leaves a sort of residue on the film prevent much more pencil being laid down.

5. For whisker highlights or bright white areas I recommend a stabilo white pencil, although it is creamy and can drag if not kept very sharp, it goes cover over everything and gives a good clean line.

6. Try not to block areas of colour, the pencil strokes do tend to show up more on drafting film so a flecky appearance is best using lots of tiny pencil marks and filling in gaps with similar shades.

7. Try different coloured backgrounds behind the film to see which looks best, I think it depends on the colours of your portraits, although white does look a little drained.

8. Don't take shots of draft film pieces in sunlight, the image always looks drained of colour (this is true for any support really)

9. Drafting film does seem to dull the pencil colours a little in comparison to paper and board so perhaps a touch of slightly more vibrant colour than expected will brighten up your portrait no end.

10. Blacks do not seem as deep on drafting film and pencils strokes will show through, although this is acceptable, even desired for fur, but a solid black area will not look too good on drafting film so choose your subjects carefully.

If anyone wants to know anymore details please feel free to ask, but I will be using drafting film again, if anyone is interested I've used derwent artists and prismacolor pencils.

If you are interested in commissioning me please visit my pet portrait artist website or my wildlife artist website

Thanks for visiting!

Labels: leopard, wildlife art |

16 comments

Tuesday, 28 April 2009

Leopard by Wildlife Artist Karie-Ann Cooper

15:56 |

Posted by artbykarieann |

Leopard Wildlife Art

Almost on the home straight now, I've completed the yellow/golden fur of the shoulders but I expect I'll go back to add details as I see the need but all that remains really is the fur on the neck area. So pretty soon I'll be thinking about whether to go back to the leopard on the rocks or trying some more drafting film and I really cannot decide. The thing is I feel this leopard is just so much better standard wise than the one on the rocks that I just don't like it anymore. As everyone knows though, the longer you put something away for, the more difficult it is to restart it. Catch 22!!!

Anyway, as we trotted around our patch we found these little chicks and one had only just hatched. These are jungle fowl chicks and are the 'missing' link between chickens and pheasants, it seems many many moons ago during the course of evolution, these were the basis of chicken and pheasant fowl then depending on the habitiat, they evoloved with ever brighter colours for pheasants (mainly from Asia) or became chickens in most other areas. Anyway, they have now been moved to a more secure pen as the chicks are so small they can literally run through chicken wire and so are now in an old rabbit cage until they are a bit bigger, Mum went too of course to hatch the other eggs. Jungle fowl are quite a small fowl and I would imagine the chicken side of evolution came about with selective breeding to get bigger birds and eggs as they wouldn't make much of a meal (we don't eat them by the way!!)

And shock, horror, I really am not sure what sort of plant this is, I just like it, in a couple of days the blooms appeared and flowered and it's just lovely and sending an invitation to summer. If you know what it is, let me know, I am a dud when it comes to gardening!

If you are interested in commissioning me please visit my pet portrait artist website or my wildlife artist website

Thanks for visiting!

Labels: leopard, pets, wildlife art |

8 comments

Monday, 27 April 2009

Leopard by Wildlife Artist Karie-Ann Cooper

16:45 |

Posted by artbykarieann |

Leopard Wildlife Art

For a change I thought I'd focus just on the wildlife art today and show you methodically what I have done (a bit of a novelty for me) after a 4 o'clock start with Willow I decided sleep was a waste of time and got on with the leopard portrat instead. So here goes, above I have completed the mars black and light sienna undertones, as I explained yesterday this was a bit of a mind numbing task but the image emerging on the page so quickly was such a bonus.

So I then added a light brown in the spaces, this almost gives a shadow to each hair and gives the fur more definition and a real look. Still a long way to go though...

so to give the fur it's golden tinge I used raw sienna all over, again the colour just sits in the gaps left so it does look like flecky fur (if that makes sense), now the coat looks more fluffy but I need to add some shadows so I use burnt umber to create shadows and darker areas, I have only done this near the ear so far and must continue all over but on this same area I went back over with a flesh pink pencil to fill any more gaps, this adds a few highlights and also light umber to ensure every gap was filled. I just need to do this all over now. I seem to have a formulation with the colours, I try an area with all the colours I think are needed and then simply copy the order I lay down the colours with, I'm not sure if I need to keep the order of colours the same but maybe the fur will not turn out the same if I swap them about, but I stick to it to the order religiously. I hadn't realised I did this until I lost the raw sienna colour and wouldn't continue with the other colours until I had found it and put a layer down.

Apologies for the lack of consistency with the lighting on the shots, one was taken last night, one was taken very early (pre-dawn) this morning and the final one in daylight near the patio window. I can't take it outside as we've had hail stones and thunder today so it could get a bit wet!!! Anyway I hope that goes to show how I work, I don't always work the same way twice but I hadn't realised how regimented I was with the order of colours. I told you I wasn't the natural arty type, everything is mathematical for me!

Thanks for visiting my blog, please come back again, your comments are very welcome

If you are interested in commissioning me please visit my pet portrait artist website or my wildlife artist website

Thanks for visiting!

Labels: leopard, wildlife art |

9 comments

Sunday, 26 April 2009

Leopard by Wildlife Artist Karie-Ann Cooper

15:24 |

Posted by artbykarieann |

Leopard Wildlife Art

Ater yet another 5 o'clock start thanks to my lovely puppy Willow, I gave up the idea of sleep and soldiered on with some wildlife art. It's surprising how much you can get done when no one is bothering you for a cup of tea, clean clothes or pets needing feeding and the television blaring. I decided to go for broke and colour everywhere left with the light sienna colour as this has been the undercoating all over the portrait. After several hours of one colour I think I was going a little stir crazy but at last I could get the idea of how the finished piece of wildlife art would look like.

Then after a grey start and the threat of rain, I got back to the portrait and decided to bore myself to tears with mars black, although I do find it mind numbing to use all the the same colour, it did make the portrait look more 'real' sooner than normal, I usually have an eye completed, then maybe a cheek rather than an all over area marked out so it's good to see but I still like my tried and tested method of area by area, then I know I've got the colours right and the shapes look ok.

And here of course is the lovely Willow, she has discovered football now and is quite relentless at letting you know she wants to play, thing is even though she's a dog, she still plays better than I do!!! I quite like this pose, I know I'll have to do her portrait before long, she's almost adult looking now at just 5 months, and I think this is one to keep just in case I do it sooner rather than later, unless she gets bigger again of course!!!

Pet Portrait and Wildlife Artist website

Plus of course after another scatty five minutes yesterday evening I decided to change all the keywords on my website so no doubt I'll disappear into oblivion for a few months but I've decided to get on with sorting it out properly and am using an seo programme to get things sorted... at long last. It's swings and roundabouts, you spend time on the website and miss out on art or do art which not many people will see if your website isn't 'up there'!!! Well only time will tell!

Thanks for visiting my blog, please come back again, your comments are very welcome

If you are interested in commissioning me please visit my pet portrait artist website or my wildlife artist website

Thanks for visiting!

Labels: leopard, pets, wildlife art |

12 comments

Friday, 24 April 2009

Leopard by Wildlife Artist Karie-Ann Cooper

19:50 |

Posted by artbykarieann |

I've started work on the neck fur on this leopard wildlife art portrait. I've added only a couple of colours so far and will add increasingly darker colours as I work the area more. These few colours alone have meant a few hours work in order to get the fur direction right and give the impression of mass. I've also been back over some of the whiskers with the stabilo white to make them stand out more against the fairly light coloured fur of the face. Still a long way to go though with this one!

Plus I've been out in the garden this evening, we are expecting a weekend full of rain so it was pen cleaning time and all my little friends had a run about in case they don't get much chance tomorrow and Sunday. Click on the picture above to see them all and their names as they are running about!!!

And you can see Willow's certificate she received for passing puppy training, isn't she clever!!!

And now for news on Sweep my poorly guinea pig. I collected him from the vets last night, unfortunately his teeth are not the cause of his weight loss as they were in fact in perfect order, the vet now thinks he has a digestive problem and has prescribed some pro-biotics to help him, alas he won't drink his water with it in nor will he eat his food with it sprinkled on, now I am aware of this I have to go to the chemists to buy a syringe and make him take it, no mean feat as guinea pigs are quite stubborn little monsters when they want to be!

Anyway, here he is trying to get to Treacle, the female guinea pig, doesn't look much wrong with him there though does there!?!

I've also added some more pics to my Flickr account for you to take a look at.

Thanks for visiting my blog, please come back again, your comments are very welcome

If you are interested in commissioning me please visit my pet portrait artist website or my wildlife artist website

Thanks for visiting!

Labels: leopard, pets, wildlife art |

4 comments

Wednesday, 22 April 2009

Leopard by Wildlife Artist Karie-Ann Cooper

21:33 |

Posted by artbykarieann |

Plus join my link exchange for websites and blogs.
pet portraits website wildlife art website

Well my portrait didn't get too far today after an emergency appointment at the vet's for my guinea pig, Sweep. I'd noticed he was off his food for a few days so enough was enough and off we went, good job I did too, he is having surgery tomorrow as his tooth had overgrown and was cutting his tongue making it difficult for him to eat, poor thing. He squeaked and squealed at the vet's which I've never known before, he registered his annoyance at not being out in his pen in the sunshine!

Sooty and Sweep (Sweep has the patch of orange on his side) Anyway he was more than happy when we got home and he could run about in the grass!

DON'T FORGET MY WILDLIFE COMPETITION

Please visit here for a chance to win your wildlife image as a piece of art. Ends 30th April 2009

Thanks for visiting my blog, please come back again, your comments are very welcome

If you are interested in commissioning me please visit my pet portrait artist website or my wildlife artist website

Thanks for visiting!

Labels: leopard, pets, wildlife art |

Tuesday, 21 April 2009

Leopard by Wildlife Artist Karie-Ann Cooper

19:26 |

Posted by artbykarieann |

Plus join my link exchange for websites and blogs.
pet portraits website wildlife art website

Today has been just awful, I think I've had the worst headache I can ever remember, in fact I know I've never had a worse one, if it was a migraine I feel every sympathy for those who suffer them a lot, if it wasn't as bad as a migraine I just don't know how people cope with them. I got dressed for work and so on but my headache got increasingly worse and I was unable to even look out of the window. Unfortunately work was a no go today, I had to lie in a darkened room for a few hours until I could even stand up, hence a lack of progress on my portrait and this was where I had got to yesterday evening.

I must give credit to David Stribbling for his wonderful reference image I am using for my leopard.

Luckily by teatime I did feel better and this was the state of the rabbit pen, please note the umbrellas, they are to stop my little furry friends from getting too hot!

Plus of course, here is my Willow, she also had a day off work, I must say she is the best foot warmer on the planet, her fur is lovely to keep my toes nice and cosy!

DON'T FORGET MY WILDLIFE COMPETITION

Please visit here for a chance to win your wildlife image as a piece of art. Ends 30th April 2009

Thanks for visiting my blog, please come back again, your comments are very welcome

If you are interested in commissioning me please visit my pet portrait artist website or my wildlife artist website

Thanks for visiting!

Labels: leopard, pets, wildlife art |

7 comments

Monday, 20 April 2009

Leopard by Wildlife Artist Karie-Ann Cooper

16:32 |

Posted by artbykarieann |

Well this is where I've got to, I'm not sure whether I'm keen or whether it's just so much quicker working on drafting film but I think the leopard is appearing before my very eyes!!! I've really got stuck in yesterday, no guilt now that Patch is complete and now I know I will go back to the amur leopard on rocks when I've cleared my head of grey!!! Unfortunately my photo editing skills have let me down again, I took this image out in the glorious sunshine and as a result there is a sun reflection on the bottom right corner (yes I did say sun reflection) but I really don't care as it was such a lovely day.

Due to the sunny weather I let all the rabbits and guinea pigs out in their pens and here is a little video of Bob the rabbit and Treacle the guinea pig playing tug of war with a dandilion leaf! There were several more rounds but I didn't manage to film them all.

I've also added more photos to my Flickr account for you to see, these are a few of them

This is our acer tree, unfortunately some wally (Ronnie) planted it in front of the kitchen window, he keeps threatening to cut it down, but it's so odd but pretty I won't let him. Most trees start to green up in spring, this one starts out almost cerise pink, as the summer goes on it goes green, no one knows what it is, Ronnie's brother is a gardener and has a degree but even he is quite literally stumped on this one!

And one of the worst jobs is filling all of the water containers each day for the birds, here you can see the newest assistant on the block, alias Willow, who decided to steal the container instead of help out!!! We found it under a bush later.

And this is a pear tree in the middle of the goose pen, it is a local pear, called the Blakeney Pear Tree, in years gone by, Ronnie's parents planted all of the orchard with pear and apple trees for Bulmers the cider company, (they make my favourite drink of all, Strongbow!) they tended the trees throughout the year for the cider company plus market gardened 10 acres of land. The house next door, which is very small, was Ronnie's father's apple store, now a family live there!!! In past years when there was a bumper crop of pears Ronnie came home to find his geese had eaten them after they had fermented and they were all wobbling about a bit, bet they had a headache!!!

DON'T FORGET MY WILDLIFE COMPETITION

Please visit here for a chance to win your wildlife image as a piece of art. Ends 30th April 2009

Thanks for visiting my blog, please come back again, your comments are very welcome

If you are interested in commissioning me please visit my pet portrait artist website or my wildlife artist website

Thanks for visiting!

Labels: leopard, pets, video, wildlife art |