Website Updates

Been working - ALOT - on my website over the last few days - most of it behind the scenes trying to better my chances of ranking high in the search engines. Time will tell if it was all worth it.

Also updated things you can see on the website - mainly my 'shop' www.petportraits-bylaura.com/shop.htm where I offer original works of art for sale. This is a first for me and it will be interesting to see how it fares.

On the portrait front I have completed what I nicknamed 'The Wedding Couple' - a portrait of a couple on their wedding day 25 years ago. I enjoyed doing this portrait as I did not have to replicate the colours of the photograph I was given to work from and instead used pinks, purples and blues. Working on this portrait has inspired me to work with my watercolour paints again and have a couple of things in mind to do with them when I get time. Here is the completed portrait.

Back to Work

As predicted the good weather didn't last long (probably a good thing) so it was back to the easel today. Started working on Barney, a 7 year old Cocker Spaniel I am doing in colour pencil. You can view how this portrait progresses at www.petportraits-bylaura.com/wip_2.htm . I will post Stage 1 tomorrow after I have photographed it.

Talking of photographs...... I am very happy at the moment as I got an amazing camera yesterday for my birthday - a Canon EOS 30D Digital SLR. No animal or body was safe as I went around trying it out. I LOVE it and I've only started!!! There is so much more the camera can do than I know about yet but am looking forward to finding out. It will come into it's own when I need to photograph dogs for commissions (renowned, in my experience, for not sitting still) as it takes up to 25 continuous shots in one go - brilliant. I have lost count of the number of perfect shots I have missed because my camera wasn't ready!

Too hot to work!

All has been quiet on the easel over the last couple of days due to the gorgeous weather we have been experiencing lately. Living in Scotland you have to take advantage of the good weather when you can as we rarely get any!!

For some reason I find it hard to concentrate on what I am drawing/painting indoors if the sky is blue and the sun is shining outside. I haven't been all bad while lazing in the garden though as I have been doing some much needed reading on Search Engine Optimization. Now that my website is up and running I need to learn how to promote it and make sure that as many people visit as possible (and keep coming back). There is so much to learn and do but all worth it I'm sure.

Looking forward to a future commission I have coming up of a chocolate lab puppy. Received the photographs tonight and she is gorgeous. Will keep you posted on that one.

My First Post

Well I have taken the plunge and now have a blog - I'm quite excited about it all really. By reading my posts I hope to give you an insight into the ups and downs in the life of a portrait artist and share with you my stories from behind the easel.

So here goes - my first post - fingers crossed that all goes well when I publish!
Speak to you soon.