Thoroughbred ex-racehorse portrait finished

I also finished the pastel portrait of ex-racehorse 'Carlitos' today. His owner is over the moon with the portrait. :o)

Progress on Welsh Cob portrait

I made some progress on Geoffrey's portrait today. I am working from an excellent reference photo so I am really enjoying it. The better the photo, the better the portrait.

Welsh Cob WIP

Right, here's the scan I promised of Geoffrey's portrait - well, the work in progress. I am very pleased indeed with how the eye turned out.

I have mentioned this before - I always start with the eyes. You might get a 'perfect' likeness..get all the markings and details right...right down to single hairs, yet if you don't manage to capture the look in the pet's eyes - that individual look the owner loves - it is not this particular animal but just some cat, dog, horse.... It is the pet's essence I want to capture, their personality.

Blogger problems

Unfortunately blogger has not been working properly...I tried to upload new scans yesterday and it just won't let me...and it still isn't working today. Pain...so I'll just have to link to the scans externally and you can click on the links in case you would like to check out the pix.

I have now finished the portrait of Haflinger gelding Moritz and have worked some more on the pastel of Carlitos. I have also started using my pastels on Geoffrey's portrait and am going to upload a scan (or link...) later today. So watch this space! ;o)

Welsh Cob portrait started

I've been working hard today! In between adding the finishing touches to the portrait of Moritz the Haflinger horse and working on Carlitos' drawing, I also managed to start another equine portrait.

This one is of a beautiful chestnut Welsh Cob called 'Geoffrey'. At this stage, I am not yet worried about the fine detail such as the look in the horse's eyes but mainly about the proportions. They have to be 100% correct from the start...if you get them wrong at this stage, you won't be able to do much about it once you've started using pastels on it. So I always make sure everything is exactly where it should be before I pick up a pastel pencil. I'm still debating whether to change the angle just slightly and add a little more 'body' to the left hand side of the horse.

Thoroughbred pastel portrait update

The portrait of Carlitos is coming along very nicely - grey horses are not easy to draw (especially not on white paper) so I am very pleased with how the portrait is developing. The horse's owner has seen the WIPs and is already thrilled. :o)

Work on horse portrait continues

I suppose this is how many people will feel after an unusually hot weekend...

We saw this sleepy goat and lots of other animals when we visited the local farm yesterday. However, I did get some work done. I've made some progress on the Haflinger horse portrait. It takes quite a few layers of pastels to get the rich colours right. I have just started working on the mane and will then work my way down Mortiz' face.