Bloodhounds - dog portrait in charcoal

I felt like doing a fun portrait and relax for a few hours so I had a look through my reference photos and came across a shot of two Bloodhounds. I met them at the local agricultural fair a few months ago and thought their expressions are just priceless! So here's the charcoal portrait I did of them:

Horse pastel portrait finished

The pastel portrait of Irish Draught X TB mare 'Bea' is now finished. Here's a photo:

I am now working on the cat and also a charcoal dog portrait of two Bloodhounds which should be finished soon.

Polo anyone? :o)

A few weeks ago, I went to see my first ever live polo match. Mr Charles Burrell of Knepp Castle in West Sussex kindly invited my partner and myself after we'd had a tour of the castle. There's a herd of Exmoor ponies on the estate that I was particularly interested in. I took loads of photos and will also draw the Exmoors at some stage but it was the polo that really impressed me. So here's a charcoal drawing of Mr Burrell on one of his polo ponies.

Two horse portraits finished

Still keeping busy and enjoying it! I've finished Picasso and Fame's portraits and my clients are thrilled with them:

Thoroughbred mare finished/New horse portrait started

The weather has been really weird - hail, rain, sunshine, thunderstorms...so I decided not to go anywhere today and have been working hard!

This is the final version of Simply Sharp's portrait - I think it turned out quite well. I haven't heard back from the client yet but as she has seen all the WIP scans, I am sure she'll be happy with it.

I have also done some more work on Picasso's portrait (I'll show you another scan tomorrow), plus I've started another horse portrait. It is of a grey Warmblood mare called 'Fame' and she will be drawn in charcoal. I have not drawn a grey horse in charcoal yet so can't wait to experiment! ;o)

German Warmblood horse portrait

The charcoal portrait of young German Warmblood gelding "Discus" is finished. I enjoyed drawing this beautiful horse.

New horse portrait commission

The portrait of my horse is coming along nicely - I'll soon be posting another scan. I have also started a new equine commission:
A charcoal head study of a young German Warmblood called 'Discus'. Here's a scan:

Will keep you posted. ;o)

Baby portrait finished

I've just finished the portrait of the little boy. I am definitely going to use charcoal again for human portraits.

Baby portrait in charcoal

I'm still working on my horse's character study and have done 3 of the small portraits and started the larger head study. It's coming along nicely and I'll post another scan soon. I have also been working on a new charcoal portrait. As you know, I love charcoal for my pet portraits and wanted to see if I might like it for human portraits as well so I decided to do a baby portrait. Well, I think I do like charcoal for any subject! I feel it's even better than graphite in some respects, especially as the contrast/tonal values are concerned. Here's a scan of the work in progress.

Friesian stallions

I have just finished the portrait of Tsjerk and Feitse:

Next up is a Shetland pony mare in pastels and a group portrait of 4 Thoroughbreds. I'll keep you posted! :o)

Friesians continued

As you can see, I have done some more work on the Friesian stallions. Getting there!

Lucky me - another equine portrait on the easel!

As you might have gathered by now, I love drawing horses and I love charcoal. So lucky me - just having finished the charcoal drawing of the P.R.E. stallion, I am working on yet another charcoal horse portrait. You might remember (or just check out my January posts if you don't) that I drew a Friesian filly collage a few weeks ago. Now the client would like a drawing of her horse's sire (father) and grandfather - both well-known names in the Friesian horse scene: Tsjerk 328 and his sire Feitse 293. Dutch photographer Karin Sevink has given her permission for me to use one of her beautiful photos showing father and son. I'm quite excited about this one! This is what the drawing looks like at the moment:

Horse portrait finished!

OK I can now proudly present the finished version of the portrait of a handsome P.R.E. stallion. I haven't come up with a title yet...maybe 'Spanish beauty'? But would that sound right for a stallion? If you'd like to suggest something, don't hesitate to drop me a line!
So here it is..I am very happy with the result. Thanks again to Juliane Meyer for the gorgeous reference photo!

Fun! Well...apart from the draw at football!

I'm enjoying this one so much I didn't even put my pencils down when I was watching footy this afternoon (well was only a draw anyway...very annoying). ^^ Anyhow, here's another update...soon this beautiful stallion will be finished! :o)

Making progress

As you can see, I made some progress this morning. I have to say I love working with charcoal...and drawing such a beautiful horse certainly adds to the enjoyment!

Update

This is how far I've got today with the portrait of the PRE stallion. I have started working on his neck, laying down the darks. It is important to leave the light areas white at this stage as you won't be able to erase the charcoal if you make a mistake.

Spanish stallion continued

I'm thoroughly enjoying this - I love charcoal and I love Spanish stallions and this is coming along nicely. I always draw the eyes first - I feel they are the most important feature, reflecting the personality and essence of the animal. I wish I could do some more work on this one now but will need to do some work on my websites. Oh well...maybe later... ;o)

Budgies finished and horse portrait started

This budgie portrait is finished as well now and the client is over the moon with it.

So I have been able to start another equestrian charcoal portrait:
The head study of a beautiful Spanish P.R.E. stallion, "P.R.E." meaning "Pura Raza Espanola" - the pure Spanish breed. They are such majestic horses and again, I am lucky enough to be allowed to choose one of Juliana Meyer's magnificent photos as my reference.

This is the pencil draft:

I'm looking forward to working on it some more tomorrow, after updating my websites.

Friesian mare finished!

I've been working hard since my last post so I have finished the collage of the Friesian filly. Here's another WIP (work in progress) first though that I scanned yesterday.

The reference photos were not very good (especially the action shot was very small) but I managed. So here's the finished charcoal portrait:

You can check out the reference photos by clicking here.
Right, off to the shops now (even artists and their families need to eat) and then I am going to work on two budgie portraits. More later!

A New Year - A New Blog!

Well, I suppose this is one of my new year resolutions. I certainly neglected my blog in 2007 and have thus decided to start afresh. It is my intention to keep it up-to-date so hopefully there'll actually be someone out there who'd like to read it! :o)
January is usually a quiet time for many artists (and possibly a welcome chance to recover from the stress that Christmas commissions might have caused). However, I have had several clients on my waiting list since October/November and have been busy. Some of my latest portraits can be seen here http://www.finepetportraits.co.uk/NewPortraits.html. I have also got several projects lined up in case I do get some 'me'-time. Juliane Meyer, a German animal photographer has kindly allowed me to use her photos as reference pictures and I have already used a couple to experiment with charcoal - a medium I like very much indeed.
Currently I am working on a collage - a portrait of a young Friesian mare called Tasana, also in charcoal. This is how far I've got:

There'll be another small drawing of her trotting below her head (hence 'collage'). I am thorougly enjoying drawing this beautiful young horse. There are also several budgies waiting to be drawn but I'll tell you more about that in my next post. Talk again soon! :o)