Daisy - French bulldog

Meet my latest commission, Daisy, a 6 month old French Bulldog, and as cute as they come. I love her pugnacious expression. Of course she is spoiled rotten by her family. I loved drawing her, the wrinkly face, the brindle coat, her cute little pushed in nose, and of course great reference photos made it easy.

Size: A4
Support: Fabrianno Artistico HP
Pencils: Faber Castell Polychromos

New Website

At last, I have completed my new website, it only took 10 months to do :-) but overall I am happy with it. It needs a few tweaks here and there, some of the pictures need resizing but that's not too much of a problem.

It is only for commissions to prevent confusion. I will have a blog for my own work I think.

You can find it here: http://www.bevs-animal-portraits.co.uk I would be happy if you could take a look and let me know what you think. Thanks.

This is Blaze the boxer, completed some time ago now, but I just love the expression, so he is worth another showing.

Evie - portrait in coloured pencil

This is my delightful great niece Evie who is a very photogenic child and on looking through my many photographs after a weekend spent with the family last year, I found this one and had to draw her. I do not often do human portraits but found this one went quite easily ..... after a false start.

Support: Polydraw film

Pencils: Prismacolour and Faber Castell Polychromos

Size: Apprx 10" x 10"

Henry - latest commission

This is Henry, who has sadly crossed over the Rainbow Bridge. He looks such a delightful little terrier, just look at the devotion in those eyes. He is sorely missed and I hope this portrait will bring back some happy memories to his owners.

I used a dark brown Colourfix paper, not my usual choice of support, but I wanted a dark background to accentuate his lovely blonde fur and this fitted the bill. I must say it worked out very well and I am pleased at how easily it came together.

Size A4

Support: Dark brown Colourfix paper

Pencils: Derwent, Faber Castells Polychromos and Prismacolour.

Bearded Iris

Well, it's been a very long time since I last posted anything here. The summer has been busy.

I started this picture of a beautiful purple Iris some years ago....possibly as long as six and recently I decided that with some adjustments it was worth finishing. I originally had some leaves and other faded buds in it but on reflection decided to turn it into a portrait of the bloom only as it really didn't need any further embellishment. Such a stunning rich colour.

Details

Size: A3

Pencils: A mix of Berol Karismacolour and Prismacolors. The background has been blended using solvent.

Support: Fabrianno Artistico 300gsm

Short Listed

I have just found out that my 'Autumn Sumach' picture has been short listed for the Ken Bromley, catalogue cover competition. The finalist will be the one who has the most votes, so if you can spare a moment it would be really great if you would vote for it. I would love to have my picture on the catalogue cover. :-) If you follow the link and look for my picture you can cast your vote.
http://www.artsupplies.co.uk/covercomp/

Trying out Landscapes

This is of a local scene, where I walk Tilly on most mornings. The photo reference for this was taken last winter just at sunrise. The geese were added from my imagination. They are always there and flying to and from the River Brue to Apex lake so are a feature of the landscape. I am just not a good enough photographer to capture them in flight, so added them later.

The picture measures about A3. I used Faber Castell polychromos on Bristol Velum finish paper.

Little Red Rooster

This is something different I have been working on recently. It was done with cards in mind and is done using Prismacolour on Fabrianno Artistico and all burnished at the end using a wax burnishing pencil.

More illustration than fine art.

Quick landscape in pastels

I did this very quickly taking about 2 hours, which is very speedy for me. I used it for a demo piece for a 'one to one' I did last week.

The view is of a fishing lake out on the Somerset levels, which is a favourite spot of mine to walk Tilly. I might just add some ducks on the water as it looks a little quiet. What do you think?

I used various brands of pastels on Fisher 400 sanded paper. It is small, only measuring 23cms x 23cms.

A few ideas

I did these little images many, many years ago and have never done anything with them, nor did I pursue the idea. But as I am having a crisis of confidence I thought maybe I should go back to things I did a long time ago and resurrect the ideas. I was trained in design and Illustration so perhaps revisiting some of the things I learned then might work to get me painting again. These would make quite nice cards, so when I get some time I will print a few and see if they sell.

Zebra Foal finished

I don't think this experiment worked all that well, but here it is completed.....for what it's worth. The acrylic is too slippery to take cp well, but when I have time I will try again using colorfix primer. I am not too unhappy with it but it is a much looser style to my usual, so I wont bin it, it just was not what I was aiming for.

Zebra foal - experiment

I think I may have found my muse - about time too! After an awful long time since I last produced anything I am now getting some ideas as to what I want to do. I am thinking of a new direction but feel it is so easy to slip back into what I was doing before, not that there was anything wrong with that, just that I would like to do something a little different....sort of.

Still doing animals, but on a completely different surface, this young zebra is done on stretched canvas primed with white acrylic paint....I don't think this is what I should have used as it feels quite slippery, but I will finish it and try something else for the next one - gesso perhaps?

Coloured pencils: FC Polychtromps and Prismacolour.

Size Approx. A5

WIP

Lord Mayors Parade #2

I cant believe it has been such a long time since I last posted. Where does the time go?

This is the second commission of the Lord Mayor's Parade showing a slightly different view from the first. I think I prefer this one as it shows more of the horses and looks more impressive showing all of the horses, the carriage and the length of the whole wonderful procession.

The reference photo I had to work with was not good as the photo was very dark so a lot of detail was missing. I do hope I have done it justice.

Magpie in watercolour

As the most dominant birds around my garden at the moment (apart from seagulls of course) I thought I would post up a small watercolour of a magpie I did a few years ago. I love their iridescent feathers and think they are such handsome birds....pity they have such a harsh call and their feeding habits leave a lot to be desired, but hey! I guess we all have to eat!