Finished off this little Kingfisher study today, and overall I’m rather pleased with it. Drawing anything at this scale does present its own set of challenges, namely getting the right amount of detail in so that it looks the part but isn’t too cluttered: a balance that I think I achieved. In addition, I learnt more about using coloured pencils and how they interact with one-another, blending and detail work.…
Usually I work on velum surface paper as it has a good tooth to it and takes many layers quite easily. I do however have a small pack of these “trading card” pieces which have a smooth surface, so a small study was just perfect for trying this surface out. And what better subject to try it out than a wonderful bee? Just as well really as I hadn’t up…
“Tilly”, coloured pencil portrait on paper, A4 size. Finished off Tilly and overall I’m very pleased with how she came out. It has been a while since I’ve done a domestic cat, so it was certainly about time I had a go at one again. The character of her has come through I think, and the look in her eyes and general pose is typical of her. It was an…
Made some good progress on Tilly today, managed to get all the rest of the base colour in and blend it out with some Zest It. At this stage I’m about half way through with the next task to be going back in and bringing out the detail and depth, adding the whiskers etc. The collar and medallion will be done as one area towards the end when I know…
I’ve made some good progress on Tilly today, blocking in quite a bit of the colour over her head. The colour tone and detail does need to be adjusted still, but I’ll get to that when I’ve worked up all of her like this and then blended out this underlayer. I think I’ve managed to get something of her character already, and will strive to maintain this throughout the rest…
Started this commission piece today of Tilly, a much loved cat around 10 years old. She’s a sweet thing, and has a lot of different fur colours in her fur that is going to make completing this piece and interesting challenge in it’s own right. First things first though, this stage: I’m happy with how she’s looking at the moment, I think I’ve gotten as much of her character as…
Last weekend, I was fortunate enough to (along with my young lady) pay a visit to Exmoor Owls to assist in the training of their young Harris Hawk, Blade. We had an enjoyable morning assisting in his training as he flew to various perches, getting used to new people and we were lucky enough to feed him too as he flew from one of us to the other. A beautiful…
Red Admiral Butterfly in pastels on Pastelmat. This one was a commissioned piece of work, one where I was given free reign for both the subject and media. A rare occurrence, but not one I’ll pass up! I was thinking about getting the pastels out again for a change of scenery, and this project proved to be the ideal candidate. I’m still working my way in with pastels, they’re not…
I’ve been hard at work recently on a project that for the moment I’m wanting to keep under wraps, but needless to say that I’m still working hard! As a nice little distraction however, I’ve been commissioned to draw a nice butterfly: so what better time to change the scenery than now to break out the pastels again? It has been a while since I’ve used them, so it’ll be…
“Aurelian”, Horse portrait in coloured pencil on drawing film, A4. Owing to a significant hardware difficulty, this one has been longer in being updated and uploaded than I had originally anticipated. However, that has now been remedied and he’s not finished and uploaded. This one was a good challenge to get my teeth into, the different colours, tones and textures were all very interesting to try and depict, each their…