Welsh Cob portrait finished

The pastel portrait of Geoffrey the Welsh Cob is now finished - and luckily, Blogger has finally let me upload the scan! ^^

Update on horse and cat portraits

Here's another update on my two latest commissions. First there's the pastel of Welsh Cob 'Geoffrey':

I've also started another cat portrait. This is young 'Carlos':

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.

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.

Welsh Cob gelding portrait finished

I have just finished the pastel portrait of "Ijsbrand", the young Welsh Cob gelding. His name is Dutch and means 'burning sword'. His owner is delighted with the portrait. More horse portraits to come so watch this space!

New horse portrait - Welsh Cob gelding

While I can't show you the cat portrait I am currently working on (it's a present to the client's colleague), I can post a scan of a new horse portrait that I started drawing a couple of days ago. It's a three year-old dark bay Welsh Cob gelding called 'Ijsbrand'. He is being drawn in pastels and this is how far I've got: