Latest pastel commission - a car!

I am currently working on a rather unusual commission: a pastel portrait of a sports car or, to be precise, a Chevrolet Corvette. I certainly wouldn't mind that kind of car in my drive! ;o)

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:

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 Holsteiner horse portrait

As you can see, I have been working really hard today! I've made some progress on the portrait of Holsteiner gelding 'Claudius':

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)

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)

German Warmblood horse portrait

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

SHOP! Cards and Prints available!

GREAT NEWS! :o)
I have now made some of my portraits available to everyone as greeting cards and prints by opening a shop on the internet. More and more portraits will be added and clients will also be able to purchase cards and prints of their own pets. I'm actually rather excited about this new art project!

For more info on the shop and images available, click here!

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.

New update

As you can see, I have spent some more time on the first budgie portrait and am quite happy with the progress..

As for the second budgie portrait, Funky is now almost finished. Isn't he just a cutie? I'm hoping to make a start on Fussel's head later today.

Budgie portrait

While I'm still working on the portrait of two the budgies on their owner's hand, I am able to show you another budgie portrait that the client's boyfriend received for his birthday yesterday. It was done in Faber Castell Polychromos coloured pencils. The little guy's name is Lenny. He was much loved by his owners and his budgie friends - sadly, he flew across the rainbow bridge before Christmas.
Right, this is Lenny:


Another update on the other budgie portrait (and yet another one I am about to start) will follow soon. Talk then!

Budgies on hand

I have now started working on a portrait of two budgies landing on their owner's hand. I have to say that I am not keen on drawing human hands but am determined to face the challenge and gain some confidence! I think I've made a good start. I do love drawing budgies (or 'parakeets' if you are from the States) as I've got two of my own called Teddy and Alfie. If you'd like to see some of my budgie portraits, click here.

As for this particular portrait, the reference photo isn't that brilliant (you can't really see the budgies' faces) but the photo means a lot to the owner, which is why she asked for it to be drawn.

The portrait is being drawn using mixed media - pastels and coloured pencils, which I find works very well as far as small drawings of birds are concerned.

I'll keep you posted! Wow, 3 posts in 3 days.... ;o)

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)