Progress on meerkat portrait

Made some progress on the meerkat portrait...just blocking in colours and adding contrast...
I'm rather happy with the meerkat's face - this is the look I love most about those little clowns! :o)

Cat pastel finished

The pastel portrait of 'Felix' the cat is now finished. The client asked for a blue/green blackground because Felix' blanket was blue and green. I am very happy with the portrait and hope it does the cat justice. On to the next cat portrait then! ;o)

Cat portrait progress

We went to Marwell Zoo near Winchester yesterday and I took about 250 photos that I might use as future reference photos. I love the meerkats in particular and am planning a series of meerkat sketches. Another thing on my 'to do list' which is getting longer and longer all the time... LOL

Commissions come first though! So today I've made some progress on the portrait of Felix the cat. Here's a scan:

New cat portrait in pastels

This is the pencil outline of a new cat portrait. 'Felix' will be drawn in pastels. Sadly, he was run over by a car and killed at only 2 years old. His owner has also commissioned another portrait - a pastel of a cat that ran away a while ago and has not been seen since. So these will be very special portraits...

Westphalian mare finished

Still not feeling too great but I have been trying to work whenever possible so managed to finish the portrait of 'Abigayl de Luxe' - the chestnut mare. Again, blogger won't let me upload the scan which is VERY annoying to say the least. So please click on the following link if you'd like to see the portrait:

http://www.finepetportraits.co.uk/Abi.jpg

Arab head study WIP

I got some work done on the pastel of the chestnut Arabian gelding. This is how far I got:

'Spirit' is six years old and was bred in Poland. Seems I've drawn quite a few chestnuts lately!

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)

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)

Boris the cat

What's the weather like where you are? A few days ago it was still winter, now we seem to be in the middle of summer. Phew! Despite the heat (well I mean we're in England so this IS 'hot'), I have been busy. Just finished the full body pastel of Boris the cat. I've also started two more horse portraits... but I'll tell you about those tomorrow.

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:

My latest horse portrait commissions

I've got a lot of equine portrait commissions to do at the moment which I am enjoying very much. I just love horses and, of course, drawing them! I've just done the draft for the pastel head study of 'Picasso', a Dutch Warmblood.
I've also made some progress on the English Thoroughbred's portrait as you can see below.
Back to the easel!