Whizz - a handsome black Lab

 Small update, not much done yesterday, a tad cold in my studio.

 A little more done today, putting down the base layers first before adding the details and highlights etc. It's looking a little strange with all the different colours but once I have added more detail on top he will look like a black dog. Hmmm think I need to work on his eye, looks a little odd.

 Well, onto my next commission, a very handsome black labradour.

It is on Pastelmatt, A3 in size and I am using a variety of soft coloured pencils, mostly Karisma, a few Derwent coloursoft and one or two Stabilo softcolour (I think these have been discontinued - a shame as they are nice to use). I am then dissolving the cp using a low odour solvent. This is the first time I have done an animal using this method and I will be interested to see how it turns out. I really hope I don't have to start again as this is for Christmas, so not much time left.

Rose and Tango finished

Finally finished Rose and Tango. All in all it took me around 20 hours to do. I hope Rose likes it!

Rose and Tango

I think this will be the last post until I have finished. Just Tango's head and the background to do now. I am leaving the head for tomorrow morning when I am fresh....I will need to concentrate for the bits and bridle.

 A little more done, not too much more to do, just the most dificult part, the bridle and bits etc, I will need a very, very sharp pencil to get nice crisp lines. I think that part will take a fair amount of time. I am looking forward to doing the head though.

A small update....not too much to show for 3 hours work, I spent most of it adding  more detail, veins and muscles and layering in darker tones etc.

At last I have something to post. It's been way too long since I last had a pencil in my hand.

This is a commission for a friend, Rose and her and her beautiful horse Tango, bought by a group of her friends for her birthday. (The portrait, not the horse.)

The photo was taken by her partner Jon.  http://www.jonsucksmithphotography.co.uk/index.html

It measures roughly 16" x 12". 

Pencils: Faber Castell Polychromos

Support: Fabrianno Artistico HP.

Around 5 hours of work so far. The scan is not great, but the colours are fairly accurate.

Highly Commended Award

My Silverback 'Rainforest Dreaming' won a Highly Commended award at the UKCPS 2010 Annual Exhibition, which of course I am extremely pleased about.

Below, is a photo taken at the exhibition showing how he looks all framed and displayed.

UKCPS 2010 Annual Exhibition

I was very pleased to have both my submitted pictures accepted for the 2010 UKCPS exhibition.

They are the Amur Leopard and the Silverback Gorilla. Now all I have to do is get them to Stamford. I wish I could get to the exhibition to see all the finalists in real life but it will be too far for me to get there. I look forward to seeing them all online.

What? Where?

I have just completed my little group of meerkats in time for the Illminster exhibition 'Diversity' which is being held at the Meeting House in Illminster from the 6th to 18th September together with Pauline Longley and Diana Connor. If you are in the area then please pop in, we would love to see you. I will be showing my wildlife drawings in graphite, coloured pencils and pastels.

I find these little chaps so engaging and amusing. I had some reference photos of them and grouped them together to make a panoramic composition which I think works well. I used graphite again for this one....I seem to be on a graphite kick at the moment. The paper I used is Mellotex ultra white and the size is 20" x 9" so each individual is fairly small.

Mother Protector

Just for you Janet, this is how the picture looks now it's framed. I had this frame already and couldn't find any of my existing pictures to put in it, with the very heavy black frame, they just didn't look right. I sort of did the elephant with the frame in mind. I have not used a mount. I think that the white paper works just as well. (the greyish area around the frame is my kitchen wall, not part of the frame).

Here it is all finished with a dusty background. The background is not what I set out to do at the start, but it took over from what I had in mind so I went with the flow and this is what I ended up with. I don't fight with my instinctive drawing, and I am sometimes pleasantly surprised with what can happen. I think that if I had done what I originally wanted it would have looked too dominant and perhaps not worked at all. I am happy with the result.

 'Mother Protector'

This is my latest, done in graphite for a change. It is not completely finished yet. I am planning a background, a very simple one, based on light rather than detail. I am not completely confident I can pull it off, so thought I would show you what I have done so far in case I mess it up!!

I have a frame for it and if I complete it successfully I will hang it in our 'Diversity' exhibition in Illminster in September.

Size: Approx A3

Paper: Mellotex ultra white

Pencils 3B mechanical, HB 0.5 mechanical and 7B woody for the very dark darks.