I cannot believe how quickly 2007 is flying by! I have quite a few blog entries sitting in my ‘draft’ folder waiting to be finished off so that I can upload them, but life just seems to keep getting in the way! Hopefully by the end of August things will have settled down a little bit around here! Of course, when I finally get to upload them they are going to be out of order, so I might have to rationalize and give some of them a miss!

Meanwhile, to add to my wildlife art portfolio, this is the second piece in the ‘We Three Kings’ series, a square format triptych of three of the big cats, the first was the Tiger, this work in progress is of the second in the series, the lion. I am still undecided on the third one because I would like to do a snow leopard, a cheetah and a jaguar but I can’t decide which one to do first!

After trying drafting film as a support for my colour pencil work, I think I have found the perfect combination of medium and support to suit my style and technique. It is rather tricky to work with initially (definitely different to any other support I have tried) but I am particularly pleased with the vibrancy and luminosity that colour pencils have on the drafting film.

These photos were taken on my easel to avoid camera flash so they are at a bit of an angle.

8″x8″ with a variety of artist quality colour pencils.

Prints and gift items with this image will be available from my RedBubble Gallery and my Cafe Press Gift Shop when the painting is completed.

Michelle

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To purchase a variety of wall art, greeting cards and t-shirts featuring my art and photography, Please visit my RedBubble Gallery. Purchases can be made in different currencies (USD, Euro, GBP, AUD) and shipped worldwide.

A variety of wall art, gift ware and apparel featuring my artwork is available in my
GiftShop at CafePress.

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This is a small acrylic painting I am working on of Gilley, a rescue Greyhound from the UK. Greyhounds have the most beautiful, liquid, expressive eyes that are an absolute joy to paint. As a breed, Greyhounds have such a regal bearing that the deep purple background seemed appropriate for Gilley’s Pet Portrait.

With these smaller paintings, I am really trying to loosen up and capture the essence of the animal without being totally pre-occupied with capturing every last detail like I normally do in my pencil portraits.

I usually do my initial sketch on paper then transfer it to the canvas, but I thought I would just sketch straight onto the canvas this time.

But graphite on canvas dosn’t erase very well, so next time I will transfer my sketch the usual way.

Gilley’s face still need some more work and I need to finish painting the sides of the canvas as I have the painting continueing around the edges.

(8″x10″, acrylic on gallery wrapped canvas)

Michelle

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I’ve managed to grab a few hours here and there to get some more work done on Poppy.

Basically just adding more thin layers and creating depth in the fur using paynes grey, ultramarine, burnt umber and some reddish brown mixes.

Also adding more thin glazes to the grass to blend the background, adding individual blades of grass and flowers stalks and a few flower buds using different greens mixed with some of the darker paint used in the dogs fur.

I’ve also started to add to the flowers to create the shadows and highlights that will give them form.  The flowers are proving to be the biggest challenge, partly because I am working from several different reference photos because I don’t know what poppies look like in detail and because none of the photos have the flowers as I want them, I am basically making it up as I go:)

In the image above, I’ve started to add the darkest paint to turn Poppy into a black dog.  The trick here is to avoid making her look like a big black blob!  The highlights in her eyes really make her come alive on the canvas.

In this last photo, Poppy is finally looking like a Black Labrador, even though she still needs a fair bit more work.  And I think she needs some liposuction on those lips, so I will have to post another update, and hopefully the final image, when she has had that necessary face lift, and had her whiskers added!

Michelle

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I have done a bit more modelling of Poppy’s face and have started on her eyes. It takes many thin glazes (layers) of paint of various shades of browns and golds to achieve the luminous liquid look of animal eyes, but having made a start on her eyes, Poppy is starting to come to life.

In this next progress shot, I have done a bit more work on the field and have started to add in the red poppy flowers. I’ve also continued with the modelling of her face and started the basic underpainting on her body. Obviously the underpainting is just blocking in shapes (shadows and lights) to create the form of her body before the detail starts to go on in the top layers. I’ve also added some purple to the paynes grey to tie the background in with the dog’s fur, to give depth to the darkest shadows and to start creating some of the red highlights that are apparent in the reference photo of the black labrador retriever that I am using. Thats a handy co-incidence that will work well to tie in the colours in the dog with the background:)

This painting is in a very, very ugly stage that seems to be lasting forever. As much as it looks like it now, this will not be an abstract painting of a dog when it is finished. LOL - at least I hope not!

I am working this painting in the same way that many oil painters use - multiple thin glazes of colour, so it is pretty time consuming. This has taken about 16 hours so far and I would say has at least that many more to go.

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Michelle

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This is a painting I am working on in between commissions for my own portfolio - it might seem a bit strange but I have very few pieces of my own artwork to show clients because most of the work I have done over the past few years have been sold.  Which of course is a good thing, but I would also like to enter a few competitions and can’t do that when I keep selling everything, so hopefully over the next few months I can add a few pieces (at least six) to my own collection here and there. 

I’d also like to experiment with a much looser style and try out some more landscapes if I get a chance.  To help keep me motivated to achieve these goals, I’ve joined in the Australian Art Forum’s Winter Challenge with will run from 1 May to 1 September.

It seems that most artists that paint with a high degree of realism tend to produce  pet portraits with traditional landscapes or portrait backgrounds, and those artists that paint in a bold contemporary style usually don’t paint in highly realistic detail.  I would like to pursue a slightly different direction with some of my artwork, although I don’t think I will ever move away from my realistic and ‘up close and personal’ style, I want to explore combining that with modern contemporary backgrounds.   Bright bold background colours and landscapes full of beautiful saturated colours that border on the real/surreal/hyper real.  Will it work?  Can it be done?  LOL, who knows, but I am sure it will be fun to find out:)

This one is likely to take a while to complete as I am fitting it in between commissions.  ‘Poppy’ is 16″x20″ on gallery wrapped canvas.  This is a big experiment as acrylic is a new medium that I am teaching myself how to use.  The thing I love about being self-taught is that you can try new and unusual techniques because no ‘expert’ teacher has deemed there is a right way and a wrong way. 

Personally, I think as long as you use good quality artist’s materials, you can’t go far wrong by simply experimenting to find out what works (or dosn’t) for you:)

So here goes my experiment with ‘Poppy’.  I’ve deliberately chosen to offset the black labrador to the right hand side of the canvas, and to use a landscape orientation rather than portrait.  My vision for this one is to have the dog sitting a a field of red poppies. So I have to learn how to paint flowers as well, which will be fun:)

The first image shows my sketch of the Poppy, and the beginning of the background field, which has been created with many thin glaze layers of paint which has taken about 3.5 hours so far.

The next progress shot shows how I have started to block in the main shapes (shadows and highlights) in the underpainting using various dilutions of paynes grey.

More work on the underpainting and additional glazes on the background.

Stay tuned for the next updates on Poppy!

Michelle

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