Golden Retrievers finished

Floyd and George the two Goldens are now finished and here is the completed portrait with them together as promised .....

Have now started work on the Greyhound and should have a progress shot to show you soon.

Unfortunately things have been a bit slow behind the easel this past week or two and I haven't had as much time as I would like to dedicate to my drawings with having to catch up on other tedious but necessary tasks - mainly paperwork. But that's it done now - no more complaining.

Another Golden

But same portrait. This week I continued working on the portrait of two Golden Retrievers and finished this lovely fellow .....

I plan to have this portrait finished tomorrow so watch this space for the full version with them together. Next up on the easel is a Greyhound.

I'm in love.......

With Prismacolor Verithin pencils that is. I was inspired to try them after another artist I admire gave them a good review on her blog alongside a beautiful drawing she did using them. Always one to try something new, especially when it comes to colour pencils, I included a set of 36 Verithins to an existing order - and am I glad I did.

If a pencil is capable of getting the tiniest of details then this is the one. I have been using them with Derwent Artist pencils on my latest portrait of two Goldens and really like the feel of them. I've always favoured using Derwents to the other brands for a number of reasons, one being the lead is harder and in turn you get a sharper line - the Verithin gets it sharper.

I have one major problem with them however, and that is there are only 36 colours in the range - what were/are Prismacolor thinking? I'd like to draw an animal just using Verithins but apart from taking me, I would imagine, twice as long to complete there are not enough of the right colours but I do think they were intended to be used in conjunction with other brands of pencils, primarily Prismacolors.

This is one of the Goldens nearly completed - still to work on the fur on his neck - using Derwents and the wonderful Verithins (you'll probably have gathered by now I quite like them).

So, if there are any colour pencil enthusiasts out there who haven't tried Verithin pencils yet do try and get hold of some - you wont be disappointed.

Elkhound Montage

24 x 18, colour pencil and pencil

After giving both dogs something to sit on - in this case grass - and doing my usual 'touch ups' here and there I am now calling the Elkhound montage finished. After a difficult start and taking a lot longer to complete than I had originally planned I am really happy with how this portrait turned out.

It is now the one and only portrait sitting in my new 'Montage Gallery' on my website. I have wanted to do a montage for a long time now and to offer them as a choice on my website but, as is always the case, I could never find the time.

I don't know about other artists reading this blog but if I sit down and do a bit of art 'for me' and have commissions sitting there with deadlines to meet I feel guilty and would blame that piece if I didn't finish a commission in time. What if a commission takes longer than I first thought?, what about the knock on effect for other commissions? Yes, I probably think too much but it does worry me which is a relatively new thing as I haven't always felt like this - it's a shame as I always said I would put aside time for my own work. That said, I have had a busy year which is great and as my husband always kindly points out, I don't have to sit and watch every soap going on the TV!

My Montage Gallery is in the early stages but I plan to add more to this over the coming months. I'm still slowly working on the Springer Spaniel montage, which I hope to have finished soon, and I want to do one of our dog, Zara, at some point. Hopefully having this choice in my galleries will encourage someone to go for that something a bit more special and have their own pet montage.

More on the Norwegian Elkhounds

Have now completed three of the four pencil head studies for the Elkhound montage....

As is always the case with my pencil drawings I am never happy with how they scan or photograph as a lot of the detail is lost and the paper always looks grey. I'm sure there is something I can do to them in Photoshop that I don't know about but until I master all there is to know with that program (it is on my 'really must do' list) I will have to make do with this.