Lovely little Laura

I think baby portraits are going to be my thing! I've just finished this one of baby Laura and loved every moment of the process. I'm working much more confidently with tone and contrast these days and it's starting to pay off. Laura has the most beautifully expressive eyes and I simply loved drawing them because they just brought her portrait to life. Now that I've completed this drawing, I'm itching to start the next one but haven't got a subject yet........any ideas?

Beautiful Henry for his mum xxx

I've been concentrating on my drawing a bit more lately and it shows with two pieces of art created in quite a short time. Here we have baby Henry at six weeks old. I just loved the way the light was shining in his eyes and couldn't resist drawing him. He was actually lying on his back in the photo but I felt that he needed to be sitting up. With his dark good looks and flawless skin - he was a joy to draw.

Macey for Steve

Continuing on my theme of pet portraits, here is one I did of Macey the Labrador. She was gorgeous to draw and also a bit challenging with her light coloured fur. But I think I nailed it ! I'm happy with this portrait and so is her owner - yay!

Mika the Malamute

How cute is this guy? He's as big as me when he's standing on his back legs, but he's a gentle giant who just wants to be loved. Mika is in his senior years now and just loves laying around on the outdoor sofa's enjoying the serenity of the garden.

I enjoyed drawing Mika. He has a very thick, lush coat and looks just like a HUGE teddy bear.

Another new direction...

I've really enjoyed working on portraits of people both adults and children but now I'm taking a new path along this artistic journey. Animal portraits have appealed to me for ages but I wasn't ready to go in that direction....until now! Here is a portrait of our lovely border collie 'Saffy' that I completed recently. She's pricked up her ears and concentrating on a dog barking in the distance - can you see it in her eyes!?

Changing direction

Up to now, a lot of my art work has been pretty conventional - head and shoulders - very detailed and viewed straight on. I wanted to try something a little different so searched for a suitable image of this beautiful young woman. Luckily, she had recently taken some really nice ones and as soon as I saw this image, I knew I'd found the ONE! A simple picture in black and white, over exposed on the right side it suited my purposes totally. So little detail really - compared with my previous drawings and yet works wonderfully. I love it - hope you do too!

Born in 1899 - my Gran when she was a young woman

I've been overseas recently to attend my son's wedding. It was quick trip - just four weeks and as I wanted to keep up my portrait work, I took a very old photo of my grandmother along with me to work on whenever I had a moment.

I was only intending to do a rough draft of this portrait - it was more a means of 'getting to know you' than a finished item. However, it seemed to grow a life of it's own during those four weeks away.

I love how it turned out, even though I still feel it could have been better.

What do you think?

Today is 23rd July 2011 and it's my sister's birthday - Happy Birthday Sis!

It's taken me a bit longer than a month to complete my latest portrait. I've worked so hard on this one. It's a commission and I wanted it to be just right. It's difficult to know when something is completed but I think this one is. Tomorrow Tony will spray it for me and on Monday, I hand it to the new owner. Bye bye pretty lady, I've enjoyed working on you, but it's time for us to part....

A beautiful little girl

It's amazing! I've actually finished this one before the month was out and I only had weekends and evenings to work on it. I'm using a wonderful birthday present to assist - it's a natural daylight lamp and invaluable for evenings and cloudy days. [Thanks Aiden & Dan!].

In this portrait, I've tried to work more confidently both with colour and contrast. I'm very happy with the result but still see lots of room for improvement.

Today I'm starting on my first commission - another coloured portrait of a beautiful lady. Watch this space! :o)

Karen

Another finished portrait! I've been working on this one of Karen for about a month. It's a present for her birthday and it's the most ambitious image I've drawn so far. I concentrated on getting better contrast and I think it brings the whole thing to life. Karen's hair was quite a challenge too but with the help of my trusty electric eraser, I think I pulled it off [the challenge - not the hair!] :o}

Hope she likes it!

To keep my momentum going, I started on a colour portrait the same day I finished this one. Hopefully I will be able to post the finished item before a month is out. I'll try anyway!

Yay!!! It's finished.....

It's taken a bit of time to finish this one, although probably not as long as it seems due to the fact that I've only had the odd evening to work on it. But I'm very pleased with the final product and have learnt a lot along the way. I think I'd like to sketch Tony now and hang the two pics together.

I'm attaching a few different views of this sketch and am still deciding how I'd like it framed. But most definitely a simple black mat and frame will be the go.

Still going...

I'm still working on this self portrait and have got a little further with it. I think it's coming along ok and I'm learning a lot just having a go.

Self portrait - work in progress

Being as I'm so slow to post finished work here, I thought it would be an idea to post my work as I go along so that you can see how I get to the finished item. Here are the first two photos of a self portrait that I'm working on at the moment. Christmas and New Year have been so busy with the family and house maintenance projects that I've spent very little time on this work. But I'm happy with how it's going. What do you think?

Riley

Yay! This time a coloured pencil sketch took my fancy. I had a bit of spare time lately so filled it by working on this portrait of my other lovely little grandson. Haven't done much work with colour and I'm not entirely happy with this one as I think I started off with the wrong base colour for his hair. But considering it's the first coloured pencil sketch I've ever done, I'm pretty happy with it. This one took me a month so I'm cutting my turnover time for my work by quite a lot! I think the next one I try will be just graphite and I'll concentrate more on getting the BEST reproduction of features I possibly can. Watch this space! :o)

For Rhys on his birthday

Well it's only taken me one whole year to get this piece finished, and just in time for Rhys' 7th birthday. Lucky for me he's still into Scooby Doo and was delighted with it. Pointilism is so time consuming. Tony has framed it using a dark charcoal mat board and simple satin black frame. It looks awesome [thanks Tony!] and I know Rhys will treasure it.

Now the next question is....what to work on next?

Illustration Friday - Theatre

In loving memory of Leroy the cat!

From the age of 11, I was brought up in a single parent family with two sisters, a brother and a young male cousin. My mother frowned on television and couldn’t afford to buy one anyway, so us kids mostly created our own entertainment. One of our favourite games was playing ‘Theatre’. We’d dress up in old clothes, rig up some curtains (usually a blanket
stretched across a doorway) and we’d play act for hours, making it up as we went along. One day we realised we had a ready made stage if we used the wide windowsill in the bedroom with its heavy drapes. I remember that day like it was yesterday. My young brother, playing the spurned boyfriend, announced to the world (well the four of us really), that he was ‘leaving this place forever’ and with a dramatic flourish of his right arm, accidentally opened the out swinging, casement window with his other hand and promptly disappeared backwards through the opening. He fell four feet but lucky for him his fall was into a freshly dug flower bed. The rest of us, not realising how serious the situation could have been, were left rolling around in fits of laughter, which only increased when Gerry reappeared through the doorway covered in mud and bits of vegetation and a very cranky look on his face. Magic!

It wasn’t until I was in my mid 30’s that I had my first experience of viewing live theatre and I LOVED it. I knew I would!

Illustration Friday "Impossibility"

Some people think that giving up smoking is an 'impossibility'. I've never tried it myself, but through my life, I've watched many people I love struggling with the habit. My father was a heavy smoker, perhaps that's why I never tried it – the smell of stale tobacco on his clothing, the yellow teeth, and his stained fingers was enough to keep me from trying it. He was in the Royal Marines during World War II and was stationed for a time in Palestine. Most of the soldiers there were smokers, my dad amongst them. Standing guard duty at night time then had its own special perils if you were a smoker. Enemy snipers used to target the glowing red end of a cigarette as the smoker dragged on it. The guards quickly learned how to avoid making themselves a target by turning their cigarettes back to front so the glowing end remained hidden in the cupped palm of their hand. The one enduring memory I have of my dad is seeing him squatting on his haunches at the side of a newly dug veggie patch, puffing on his back to front cigarette, staring off into space. Maybe he was remembering all those nights he spent on guard duty in Palestine…

Ruby's Portrait

For my very first post I thought I would show you a photocopy of a portrait I did of little Ruby. This was for her first birthday, and something special I thought she could keep for always. It should definitely stand the test of time because Tony has very carefully framed it using all the right kind of materials - anti acidic matt board and UV glass and it looks stunning against a black matt and surround by a black frame with just a hint of a pattern on it. The pattern on the frame echoes the Celtic inspired design in the corner.

This picture shows you the work 'in progress'. I got into Pointillism a number of years ago, and it really suits my temperament. It's a painstaking process and it takes many, many hours to complete a portrait like this. But all that effort is rewarded with fantastic reproduction of details. I am particularly happy with the eyes in this portrait – they contain such innocence and it makes me smile inside when I look at it.

If you look at the Celtic inspired design in the top right hand corner, you will notice that I've experimented with a number of ways of creating it. I tried solid black; outlining in black; filling in the negative space; but eventually decided on filling in with straight forward Pointillism for the final design.

I think blogging is going to be a great way for me to keep a record of my future works, because I mostly give them away as presents and only get to see the work when I visit that person. With family scattered across the world I don't get to visit some of my work very often!

You may be wondering - what is the significance of the Red Back Spider? Because Ruby is the product of an Australian father and a Welsh mother I wanted to include these two important aspects of Ruby's heritage in the final work. I also wanted to experiment with the work by adding a minute amount of red to illustrate Ruby's name. My daughter, Nicola came up with the idea for the spider, which is an Australian Red Back – how appropriate! Thanks Nic!