Sleepy cat portrait WIP

Made some progress on the cat pastel portrait....the reference photo is a bit small so it is hard to see all the detail. Anyhow, getting there I think...

The other pastel portrait I'm working on - the grey mare - should be finished by tomorrow. Keeping busy! ;o)

And another update!

Busy day! I've spent about 6 hours today working on Claude's portrait and I think it is looking quite promising! ;o) This should be the last WIP scan - hopefully I'll be able to finish the portrait tomorrow afternoon.

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.

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)

English Thoroughbred foal

I have finished the foal. So this is Simply Sharp's son "Sharpolino", drawn on Daler & Rowney heavy weight pastel paper.

Pastel portrait of Oldenburg mare started

I have started another equine pastel painting. The horse is an Oldenburg mare called 'Gina'. Here's a scan of the WIP:

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!

German Warmblood horse portrait

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

Progress on the horse portrait

I made some progress on the 'large' head study today and thought I'd show you. Hope you won't get bored...but it does already look like my horse...my friend of so many years. Boy do I miss him...

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.

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)