Dog Portraits, Willow, Gypsy and Zac

Well Christmas has been hectic, as well as how chaotic it is for shopping, present buying and wrapping etc I've had a rush on portraits to contend with as well, other pet portrait artists will know eactly what I mean. However, I took Christmas Day and Boxing Day off but I do feel slightly lost without a pencil in my hand and am now back to full steam ahead with this dog portrait from some time ago which I put away when commissions had started to build up. As you can see I still have a way to go and it is quite a large portrait so it should keep me out of trouble.
Aside from this I've been trying to decide whether or not to carry on with portraits, this Christmas was manic, due to the number of portraits to do plus I also work full time, the stress was quite unbearable at times. That said I do enjoy it, and I think the main reason for my stress was the fact that I am so disorganised, I really do muddle along. Instead of working things in order to have things finished in time I tend to work the pieces I find most interesting and then I have a mad rush to catch up so I am giving myself the challenge of not getting in that situation again. Having said that, I have a solo display in February for a whole month and now need to produce some more work as the gallery will need to be filled up! So here is my first challenge for the year, to actually sit down and make myself do art instead of fiddling about with my website which I do a lot, all to no avail, I have risen in the search engines and for a complete novice I think I've done quite well, I could do better I'm sure but after being inundated and turning away clients at Christmas I can't be that invisible so perhaps I could leave it for now.
Anyway, my blog readers will soon know if I am keeping to my new rules, art, art, and more art instead of seeming to leave things to just mount up. We'll see!

However, in true tradition I will keep up the animal pics for you all to see, so here are a few more!

This was Elvis our peacock, he and his girlfriend Fanny the peahen turned up on our lawn one afternoon when we came home from work, we never knew if they flew there or were dumped (peacocks do make a lot of noise) but once they arrived, they never left. Elvis was besotted with Fanny, but it was a case of unrequited love and although he displayed his finery as shown above, she simply stalked off everytime in the other direction, in fact it was true to say, Fanny felt Elvis was a right royal pain and would disappear and hide from him. Elvis would strut all over the garden and orchard looking for her, and once he'd caught a glimpse of his beloved Fanny his tail feathers would start to shimmer and he would chase her around shaking his feathers, all to no avail.

We were never sure how old they were but after about 5 or 6 years with us Fanny died, and not long after so did Elvis of a broken heart I'm sure.

And this was Matilda, she absolutely refused to be shut in a pen, all our chickens are let out to wander around the garden and of their own accord they return to pens as dusk falls and we simply shut the doors, however, Matilda steadfastly refused to be shut away and every afternoon when we returned from work, she would race up to our vehicle to meet us, she almost came a cropper a few times getting very close to the wheels in her eagerness! Unfortunately Matilda did die but luckily it was of old age and sometimes it's a bit sad not to see her racing up the lawn to greet us. She followed Ronnie about and decided she should pose on his newly refurbished tractor for prosperity.

And here she is again, never far from the action, with Zac the spaniel waiting for a bit of bread to be thrown at her.

Plus meet Zebedee, this is the kitten I gave my sister for Christmas after she lost her turkish van, Tiggy after 14 years. He stayed with us overnight and we named him Shrek as it was on tele that night! Apparantly he's climbing everywhere and already tried to get into the washing machine!

And of course, not forgetting Willow, here she is on her new christmas bed made by my sister. Willow seemed to like the kitsch leopard print, she's got taste you know!

Entry has now closed for the pet portrait competition 2009/2010 however you can see all of the entries here and voting polls will be added by 1st January 2010 but you can also leave voting comments from the New Year here so do join in as soon as voting begins.

If you like my work please take the time to leave me a comment or become a follower. If you would like to win a pet portrait of your dog, cat, horse or any other pet please see my new competition. The competition has closed for this year but there will be a new one in 2010. Join in the fun and vote for this year's winner by following the links here.

If you are interested in commissioning me please visit my pet portrait artist website or my wildlife artist website
Now visit my picasa photo album to see completed pieces of art.

Thanks for visiting!

Dog Portraits, Willow, Gypsy and Zac

A bit of an update for the dog portraits, more of the leaves are now in place and Gypsy is showing up a little better, plus I have taken a few shots of some of the birds we have bred and raised this year just in case you missed them as I've not posted many for a while....

This is our temmincks tragopan we bred a couple of years ago, finally he is coming into colour and now he looks as pretty as his Dad! These are a very calm and friendly bird, when I went into the pen to take the photos, he simply walked up to my feet and looked up to me, they are not at all flighty but the females are much more wary.

Again, another cock bird we have bred, this one is a golden pheasant and he is just so talkative, he makes the most noise calling all of the other birds and he will strut up and down the fence line if you dare to go near his two girlfriends! (can you spot the interloper in the background?)

This is the swinhoe pheasant, he is always displaying and shouting at his girlfriend, unfortunately we could not hatch any of their eggs this year as she kept laying them on top of the hide and every one would promptly fall off and break, we tried trays, moving the hide, taking it out, but all failed as she likes to lay in the air so they all fell down!

And of course, my little girl Willow. She always manages to sneak into the photos!

And the latest on Cyril the squirrel, he is to be released very shortly so I will take my camera with me when I place his cage in the woods for you all to see him for one last time, he really is a cutie!

If you like my work please take the time to leave me a comment or become a follower. 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
Now visit my picasa photo album to see completed pieces of art.

Thanks for visiting!

Dog Portraits, Willow, Gypsy and Zac

with black background

with white background

A little update for Willow, Gypsy and Zac's dog portraits. I've added some more of the grape vine (it grows up the outside wall of our house) on the reverse side of the drafting film. Using the reverse side of the film makes the background look subdued and almost out of focus which is ideal. To show the dogs in more detail I added black card behind the film, this has enhanced the white of Gypsy and Zac's fur, although the light has caught it a little. At last you can see Gypsy's feet in detail. I'm not sure which I will eventually use, the black does seem to show the dogs up better but until it is completed, I really am not sure, what do you think?

If you like my work please take the time to leave me a comment or become a follower. 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
Now visit my picasa photo album to see completed pieces of art.

Thanks for visiting!

Dog Portraits, Willow, Gypsy and Zac

I've moved on a little with this dog portrait. Willow is now appearing in the portrait. I shall be able to work her chest area in full before I move back across to Gypsy, if I work any further down I will probably manage to smudge everything. They look a little less like spare parts now but there's still a long way to go, as I have said before this is a very large portrait and it does seem to be taking an age to get anywhere but I am pleased with the likeness I've achieved for Willow, wouldn't it be awful if I couldn't paint my own dog!!!!

Anyway, here she is in a bit more detail, you can see the chest area will need a lot more work to create the fluffiness factor but it is getting there. I'm also beginning to like collars now, I do have a fascination with eyes but I think collars are fast becoming a favourite too. Perhaps I should finish her ears though, she does look a bit funny with only half of one!

If you like my work please take the time to leave me a comment or become a follower. 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
Now visit my picasa photo album to see completed pieces of art.

Thanks for visiting!

Dog Portraits, Willow, Gypsy and Zac

I've made more progress with the latest of my dog portraits, here is a little more on Gypsy's dog painting. It was quite difficult to take a photo of her, the image was either too bright and showed very little detail or was too dark and looked very grey and over worked. I think this is about as close as I can get it but it still looks very grey when in fact the background is an off white but hopefully you can see enough. I've noticed I need to add a little more dark around her left eye (the right as you look at the dog painting) as it looks a bit small due to to lack of definition so I will go back to do that. Funny that I didn't notice it when working on it but after looking at the dog portrait image here it is very noticable to me.

Then I did get a little bored with white so I moved across to Willow and changed all the whites and creams for greys and blacks! I have three different blacks, ivory black, mars black and black so this gives me three additional colours to work with, they are all derwent but you can tell the difference between them which is surprising.

Anyway, here are all three together, although they look like spare parts at the moment!

I've booked myself into a few shows over the next month or so and I hope to take this piece with me if I don't get it finished soon. I went to the Lea Show with my stall on August bank holiday just gone, of course I forgot to charge the battery on my camera to take any photos but it was very well attended and I did get a lot of interest but only time will tell if I make any commissions. I sold quite a few cards printed with my artwork and a few prints which paid for the stall fee and I had a lot of enquiries about my pet portrait competition so hopefully some more entries will arrive soon. Of course I took Willow as she is a bit of a show stopper so I plonked her at the front of my stall so she could obligingly sniff anyone who came close enough to stop them and then I dragged them in. She has an odd habit of nudging people on the back of the leg to let them know she is there and it worked, she got a huge bone for her efforts and we did manage a few forays around the ground but it is difficult to man a stall on your own. I did leave her in charge of the stall when I popped next door to the ladies and she did well, when I got back she had a few browsing people in. What a good girl!

I've also added a guestbook to my website, you can access it on the links bar on the left of this page as well. Visitors can now add comments about my work and website, if you would like to leave me a comment please do so, you can also add your website details which also provide you with a free link. I also spent quite a while adding more links so if you do want a reciprical link just let me know.

And here is the cute as ever Cyril. He's looking just so sweet now, I've just fed him here which is why he has a soggy chin but usually he gets in a bit of a pickle and he has to have a clean up with baby wipes to freshen him up! It seems they are supposed to become wary of humans when their eyes open, alas poor Cyril seems to be people friendly, he starts making noises when he hears my voice as obviously he thinks it's feeding time but he has now taken to diving up my sleeve after I've fed him and we've had a few incidents where has has also climbed up on my shoulder and crawled inside my hoodie for a little nap. Do you know how difficult it is to retrieve a squirrel from behind your head with a bad shoulder, not easy I can tell you!

If you like my work please take the time to leave me a comment or become a follower. 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
Now visit my picasa photo album to see completed pieces of art.

Thanks for visiting!

Dog Portraits, Willow, Gypsy and Zac

A bit further on with my dog portrait of Willow, Gypsy and Zac. I had hoped to be further along than this, I think I was expecting too much, Willow's fur has turned out to be quite hard work and many hours of work! Really not what I had in mind! You can get an idea of how I am working her fur, I use the highlight pencil (in this case white grey and french grey) to put in the fur which has caught the light, then I go around each highlight with back, this is evident on the left side of the portrait, then I use various greys to 'fill in' the gaps creating shadows. Then I'll go back to the black to add more dark and bring the lighter fur forward, finally I use my stabilo pencil (yes I know I like it) to go over the highlights where needed to make them stand out more. Hope that makes sense!

If you like my work please take the time to leave me a comment or become a follower. 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
Now visit my picasa photo album to see completed pieces of art

Thanks for visiting!

Dog Portraits, Willow, Gypsy and Zac

I'm surprised by how much work Willow's dog portrait is turning out to be, I'm not sure if it's because she has black fur or if it just is fiddly, either way I seem to be getting nowhere fast!

As it really is coming to the end of the summer (what summer) we decided to sort out the top end of the garden where the pheasant pens are, it had become quite overgrown as most of the pens have trees in for perches and privet for protection for the birds, we also mowed a few pathways through and it now looks like a secret garden. I was of course accompanied on my photography tour by my faithful assistant Willow, she really was not meant to feature at all today but she always managed to get in on the shot, what a lime light hogger she is!

And here is our golden pheasant, this was one which we bred ourselves, it takes two years for their colouring to come out in full and this time last year he was a dull brown colour, a bit of an ugly duckling he was but now he's a bit of a beauty.

Cyril the squirrel's latest news....

Cyril briefly escaped, I thought he had climbed onto my shoulders and gone into my hood, however when I looked around to recapture him I found him half way up the curtain making for the ceiling! He's also now starting to eat pine nuts so will hopefully be on solid food before long, he's growing up so fast now!

I've also got news of the shows I will be attending which are

Newent Onion Fayre on 12th September 2009

Speech House Dog Show 13th September 2009

Worcester Race Course Dog Show 20th September 2009

If you like my work please take the time to leave me a comment or become a follower. 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
Now visit my picasa photo album to see completed pieces of art.

Thanks for visiting!

Dog Portraits, Willow, Gypsy and Zac

I've now started on Gypsy, the little terrier who will be sat in the middle of this dog portrait. She's not the prettiest of girls but she is the most faithful little dog I've ever met. She follows Ronnie around relentlessly unless I take her for a walk and unfortunately she does attack most other dogs we meet so I have to grab her and carry her under my arm until the approaching dog meets safety! She's a typical little terrier and digs and rolls in thiings she shouldn't! We're not sure how old she is as she is a rescue dog who was returned to her breeder after being owned for a year, then the breeder had a heart attack leaving 42 terriers homeless (sob story I fell for yet again!) and I'm not sure if all of them did find homes whch is very sad, but luckily for Gypsy, she came to live with us and now has 4 acres and a little forest to run around in so I think she did ok!

She has become Willow's adopted Mum, unfortunatley Willow, who is very trainable, copies all of Gypsy's bad habits! We see Willow do something and instantly recognise Gpsy's behaviour, the problem is usually Gypsy is so small it makes no difference but a huge dog like Willow can wreak havoc....back to training!

If you like my work please take the time to leave me a comment or become a follower. 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
Now visit my picasa photo album to see completed pieces of art.

Thanks for visiting!

Dog Portraits, Willow, Gypsy and Zac

Here is Zac’s dog portrait completed, I will obviously go back to add the background and add bits here and there but you can see it’s him now. I’m pleased with the likeness and it does help that digital cameras are now wonderful: unlimited pictures can be taken, settings can be changed and the not so good images can be deleted, you can click away until the perfect image is captured. Any pet owner knows their pet upside down and will know when they’ve got that perfect shot so really there is no excuse for a bad image these days which is just such good news for a pet portrait artist, it must have been hell years ago when cameras with films were in use and you had to wait for the photos to be developed, remember posting them to Truprint and waiting a couple of weeks to get them back! My mum used to wait until she had a batch and would send off a few films at a time which meant she’d even forgotten some photos being taken or that favourite shot turned out to be just the side of my sister’s head (mum is a terrible photographer even she has to admit that). Anyway I will be starting work on Gypsy very soon so do come back to check how things are going.

And here are a few very short videos of Cyril, you'll see he's a little unsteady on his feet still but he is just so cute!



If you like my work please take the time to leave me a comment or become a follower. 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
Now visit my picasa photo album to see completed pieces of art.

Thanks for visiting!

Dog Portraits, Willow, Gypsy and Zac

I'm really starting to get on with this now, sometimes I need to be in the mood to get anything done at a pace and everything else seems to get in the way! I've carried on with the chest area, this is a somewhat limited palette, I'm using white, which is more creamy than pure white, then white grey, french grey and steel grey for the darkest shadows. I usually put done the highlights (white and white grey) in the small area I am working then add the shadows finally going back over everything with the white grey to fill in the gaps so to speak to ensure the fur looks full. I think I am happy with using just the four colours at the moment but no doubt I'll return at some point to add more, you know me, fiddle, fiddle until I am totally satisfied!

And just to show you how much Cyril has grown, here's a little pic of him after having lots of milk so he just sort of collapses in my hands, he nearly fills one hand completely now, a bit different from the bald little midge he was when he first arrived! He's making all sorts of noises now, much to terrier Gypsy's annoyance, she keeps tilting her head to one side looking at the carry cage (which is well out of reach) as if to see where her next meal is coming from!

Also Willow is in very bad books, she managed to eat all of the eggs collected yesterday (about two dozen) and is quite sick and smelly today. She is currently collapsed on the floor looking a bit crook! What a bad girl!

If you like my work please take the time to leave me a comment or become a follower. 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
Now visit my picasa photo album to see completed pieces of art.

Thanks for visiting!

Dog Portraits, Willow, Gypsy and Zac

I've made more progress with my dog portrait, Zac is fast appearing on the page which is surprising considering the image is 70cm by 50cm! I have worked some of the white chest area but it is lost in the brightness of the photo at the moment but it is there.

Plus here is a little video of Cyril the squirrel as promised and as you can see he is a bit mad, the problem is he isn't the most balanced, I think he needs stabillisers until he finds his way about a bit better.

If you like my work please take the time to leave me a comment or become a follower. 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
Now visit my picasa photo album to see completed pieces of art.

Thanks for visiting!

Dog Portraits, Willow, Gypsy and Zac

As they say, it's no good fibbing because you always get caught out! This was my secret project, it was to be a very large portrait (well it still is) of Willow, Gypsy and Zac for my other half Ronnie as a present. I thought I could get it done in secret as he is at work and I am not at the moment, but he caught me out, I tried to fib but to no avail so it's not a secret any longer!!! I've also now managed to commendere the portrait to take to shows with me so it's all guns blazing to complete this dog portrait pretty pronto. These are a couple of updates to show how I've got on so far and this is where I've currently got to so now you are all at the same stage I am!

So a bit of info for you, this is Zac, he will be on the right hand side of the portrait so I intend to work on him first, Gypsy will be sat in the middle and Willow on the left side. I've used some of the images on my photography tips page as reference images as that really was what they were for but I had so many images that were poor quality I thought I would update the page with more examples.

But back to Zac: Zac is about 13 years old and is still going strong. He stays with Ronnie's Mum at night time (she lives next door) but comes down to see us through the day and nags me until I take all of them for a walk around the woods. He is such a happy dog, all the way around the woods, his tail never stops wagging even on the way home!

So far I have had to use a variety of brands of pencils to get the correct colour for Zac's fur. I have never mixed brands before thinking they would not work well together but thought maybe I was restricting my palette a little, so here I have used derwent artists, coloursoft, studio and polychromis and prismacolour pencils and so far so good, although you can feel the different brands in use as some are smoother than others. Anyway so far so good, plus I think I've managed to get the sheen on his coat quite well and even though Zac is somewhat of an old gent now his fur is still shiny and in good condition plus he's the best looking spaniel I've ever seen!

Cyril the Squirrel update:

The latest news is that Cyril can now see as his eyes are fully open, the website I have used for info about squirrels says that once squirrels see humans they become a little frightened and do not interact too well but it seems no one told Cyril, as soon as I put my hand in his carry basket to feed him he begins 'gumming' my fingers, he shows absolutely no concern about my not being at all squirrel like, perhaps he's like me and needs specs to cross the room!!! Yet again I've not taken the promised video of him but I will I do so as soon as possible.

If you like my work please take the time to leave me a comment or become a follower. 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
Now visit my picasa photo album to see completed pieces of art.

Thanks for visiting!