New Artwork.

 "Boo"

This was a painting I had completed some time ago for relatives, Lucy & Charlie. It was a surprise at the time, for Charlie, but he found out about it and so it was revealed to him. 

 "Josie"

This was another painting to be gifted to a friend of Becky's. "Derek and Trevor" (below) was for a friend of mine, Anthony. 

"Derek & Trevor"

New Piece. "Trixie"

Here is my latest completed piece of artwork, "Trixie"

Another for Becky's collection, this was done using just coloured pencil, except for the light watercolour wash on the background.

And below we have Trixie admiring herself.

A break from the dogs. Common Swift.

Common Swift

I have been steadily ploughing through the commission/request pieces, but in between dog paintings I wanted to create this gouache and pencil head portrait of a Common Swift. I had kindly been given permission from friend Ben Andrews to use his photograph which grabbed my attention as soon as I saw it, emerging from the darkness it had a surreal look to it, and being one of my favourite species I couldn't resist. 

I had finished two pieces of work, both dogs, one before the swift and one after, but as they were for surprise presents I have not been able to put up the images. I am presently 3/4 of the way through a dog commission piece and this time I have used just coloured pencil, I may use some fine detailing using gouache near completion but it will be nearly all pencil which has been a nice change, image to appear as soon as it's finished.

Finished Commission Work. "Teddy".

Teddy

This is my latest work that I did as a commission piece. I met the owners at the Ashwell Show back in August then made a visit to their house to photograph the dog, it took a couple of weeks to complete. 

"Stanley"

Just completed "Stanley", a mixed media on this one, I used coloured pencil and gouache. Just need to frame it now.

SOLD

Great reception at Ashwell & "Jake" new artwork.

Ashwell Show

The August Bank Holiday Show at Ashwell turned out to be a great day, the weather was sunny and hot which brought the visitors out in their hundreds. I was painting at the same time as showing along with my supervisor/manager (hee hee) wife Sarah. It was lovely to see and chat to so many people there and my work was well received and I was very grateful for the comments. 

The piece I was working on was of "Jake", another watercolour painting for our friend Becky, not completing it at the show I continued when I was off work at home, and when finished was well received by owner and dog!

I am now working on graphite pencil drawing and have started a portrait of a young Giraffe. 

"Bryn". Springer Spaniel.

Springer Spaniel

Just completed my latest piece of artwork, done in pencil, a Springer Spaniel called Bryn, owned by my aunt and uncle Beryl & Bernie.

All Terriers. New Artwork.

 With the Ashwell Show fast approaching I am still busily completing as much artwork as possible, I had a bit of a layoff when partaking in some DIY having just put our house on the market, for a move to Norfolk. My first piece was a pencil drawing of a Staffordshire Bull Terrier, which I decided to name "Buster".

 A couple of times people had suggested painting a Jack Russell and being a popular breed I decided it had to be added to the dog list! I was very happy how it turned out and seemed to complete it in quick time also, or so it seemed. I named this piece "Patch".

 My 3rd piece which I have finished just this afternoon, is a English Bull Terrier which I have named "Archie". I like to give the painting/drawing a name as it gives it character and brings it to life I think. This took me approximately 3 days, but was one I had wanted to do for some time. And over the previous couple of days my wife, Sarah, and I had been in Norfolk house hunting and whilst in Holt we were lucky enough to bump into a couple with a English Bull Terrier, we couldn't resist stopping to talk to them and I just had to get a picture on my phone to help me with the "Bull" painting in progress. But "Stanley", as pictured here below, was just too lovely not to warrant a painting and so I shall be adding it to my list and cannot wait to get started on it....have to complete other work first though.

"Snowy & Zebra"

 Here are my latest pieces of artwork, a Zebra portrait using pencil and then I reverted back to watercolour for a portrait of "Snowy", owned by my cousin Sam and her partner Jason. For the pencil drawing I stuck to using Faber Castell and Derwent pencils, by far the best type I have used, mind you I wish the Derwents were a tad stronger and didn't break when you sharpened to a fine point. I also recently purchased a new sharpener made by Derwent and I am very pleased with how good it sharpens. For "Snowy" I gave in to my wife Sarah, and went for a bold orange backdrop. She said how a vivid background colour would boost the picture, as she had seen on some modern pieces, and so I gave in and I must admit I think it works well, next I may use a bright yellow backdrop behind a dog that is predominantly white/grey in colour.

More four legged work completed.

 It's been busy busy with the artwork at the moment, I don't seem to have enough time! From the new work, first up was Max, my youngest brothers Shih-Tzu. I stayed with the black paper but used watercolour/gouache to bring out the detail more, and it was good to have a different species of dog to paint also.

 Second up was another painting for Becky, this was of her dog Rocky. This took longer than I thought with lots of hair detail emphasising the grey/white hairs. I was glad she liked the painting and I know she has more dogs to paint still !!

 I switched back to pencil for the third piece, a head study of a Great Dane. I used some gouache on the eyes to make them really stand out and added a blue to them just to make it pop a little more.

My final piece just finished is a eye study of a horse. Here I used a watery gouache mix for the eye and also painted in the hair the rest was pencil. Planned work is a Zebra in pencil and then probably back to the dogs as I have a few requests of family dogs to do.

New Artwork.

Pug Pencil Drawing

Bess

 Requests for dog portraits seem to be increasing at the moment, I have tried to vary the artwork though by using pencil instead of watercolour. I completed a couple previously that turned out well and so I kept to the medium of pencil for a couple of requests from our friend Becky. She wanted two portraits of pets, Bess & Toby, which sadly were not among us anymore. They turned out to be a challenge as the the pictures which I had to work with were quite old and not very detailed, but I was happy with how they came out and pleased that Becky was delighted with them. I then received another request from Becky the week after for her other dogs to be drawn!! all 5 of them!! I shall be starting on the first soon.

Gorilla

 After the commission work I wanted to carry on pencil drawing on black paper, being slightly quicker in creating than watercolour painting it was a good way to build up some work.

 "Midnight" French Bulldog

 "Silver" Gorilla

 "Raven" Labrador Puppy

Staying on black paper I wanted to get some practice in with watercolour/gouache as it seemed to be ages since picking up a paint brush. I chose a side head portrait of a Bulldog and decided to name the piece Winston. Also whilst in Norfolk for the week with my wife Sarah, I had the good news that Tim and Suzanne of Cley Spy, optics outlet in Glandford Norfolk, discussed and decided that they wanted to sell some of my greeting cards in the shop, wow!  All hands on deck now getting some new work submitted for printing as cards.

"Winston" English Bulldog

"Bully" for Me.

 Here are my latest two pieces of work, above we have "Bully", a watercolour painting that I predominately completed with a thought of a greeting card. I wanted to try another species of dog and with Bullies very close to my heart I decided to choose that, the size and shape of the painting should lend well to a card design.

The second piece was something totally new to me, drawing on black paper. This was fun and reasonably quick to do. Being on black paper I was only drawing the white and grey highlights, so the subject had to be right and what else other than a black French Bulldog. It seemed weird at first not detailing any of the black areas but I was pleased with the effect and will try some other animals for sure. 

"Tucker"

 Just completed my latest piece of work, "Tucker".

My wife Sarah had been harassing me for some time to paint Tucker the French Bulldog, so I finally gave in and here we have it. The photo used was one I took at Holkham in Norfolk last year, the reflection in the eye was of a tree that was nearby and rather than change the look I kept it as it was, the look on the face wouldn't of been right if I had corrected it.

"Oberon"

"Oberon"

Continuing the dog theme, my latest painting entitled "Oberon" was of a Border Terrier that was a much loved dog of a work colleague. I included some of my most delicate line work to date, purely as the brush was loosing hair the strokes became thinner and thinner, the reaction from the woman on handing it over spoke volumes to what the dog had and still does mean to her as I had captured the dogs character perfectly, I couldn't of been happier, I was really pleased how this painting had came out. 

Next up is one of "Tucker", the French Bulldog, the one that consistently distracts me from painting by wanting to sit on my lap! 

Cards have arrived!

 My cards arrived and I am very pleased with the results. The detail and colouring is the same as the original painting. Can't wait to see what some of the other paintings will look like as a card.

Two Bears and a Border. Recent Watercolours.

My painting has been pretty continuous recently, as soon as one is finished I am prepping the next one. I have completed a couple of Grizzly paintings, as always in watercolour. I really fancied trying some bear work and the first painting was a challenge to say the least with another first being fast flowing waters, the grizzly was going to be hunting for salmon. Overall I was quite happy with how the painting came out.

 And zoomed in a bit for details.

My second Grizzly watercolour painting was to be a close up detailed piece of work which I was very happy with when finished.

GRIZZLY - SOLD

My last painting I have finished was another new genre, a Border Terrier. I painted this as a close up and only half the dogs face being shown as I wanted to try for a new greeting card design where the cropped edge would form the outer edge of the card, once I have received them through the post I will show how they came out.

BORDER - SOLD

Ploughing straight into my next watercolour painting, I am staying with the dog theme for the next couple of paintings so stay tuned for uploaded images once completed.

New work despite distractions of the French Bulldog kind!

 Where has the time gone!! The last few months of 2015 just flew by and I tried to keep up with new paintings but was pre-occupied with having to look after the step daughters new puppy....a French Bulldog called Tucker. It seemed I did most of the looking after as I had more days off due to my shift work, and as it turned out whenever I decided to try and paint Tucker wanted to sit on my lap and either gaze out the window or sleep on my lap, not the easiest way to try and cope doing fine line painting! These 2 Zebra were the first to be completed.

 Next up was a request for a Jaguar cub for my youngest brothers daughter Sophie, it had to be done before Xmas as a present. A trip to Berlin with my wife in November and the years end was really approaching, I next planned a challenge in trying to paint a Silverback Gorilla, this took some time to get right and then it was the end of the year. Not having any plans on getting out birding as of yet I set about carrying on in painting mode and now into January have just completed a Rhino portrait, as shown below.

 And pictured here below is the reason for being inadvertently disrupted and delayed in doing stuff.

Tucker