Finished

Jed
Coloured pencil on paper
Copyright Laura Hardie 2009

I’m calling Jed finished before I end up overworking him with my ‘touch-ups’. Next stage, providing the finished portrait is approved of course, is a visit to my framers to choose a mount.

I’m still undecided how big this portrait will end up being – the height is definitely 18 inches, it’s the width I’m not sure about. I can’t help feeling there should be quite a bit of space on the left (as we look at it) to give him space to ‘turn into' but its how much I’m having problems with. I’ll play around with mounts at my framers and get her valuable input before I make a decision.

The pic above has been cropped and only required me to paste two scans together in Photoshop but I thought I would give you a better idea of the final composition and how it will look below, even though it involved stitching (not sure if that’s the correct term) four scans together – not that easy for a technophobe like me.

Copyright Laura Hardie 2009

Getting there

Jed
A Work in Progress
Copyright Laura Hardie 2009

Jed is starting to look more complete now that he has all his legs and paws in. All that’s left to do now is the neck area – which I deliberately left to the end – and more work on his shoulder. He will of course be ‘grounded’ and not floating in air like he is at the moment as it is my intention to add a bit of sand here and there where necessary.

Something on my to-do list lately has been to move my Feed Burner account over to Google. As you know Feed Burner is merging with Google and I am led to believe that everything will be finalised at the end of this month (I could be wrong so don’t quote me). With the end of the month fast approaching I thought I’d better not put it off any longer and have now made the necessary changes, which I’m relieved to say was very simple. There shouldn’t be any problems with subscriptions etc, but do let me know if there are and I will do my best to investigate.

Greyhound - Stage 2

Jed
A work in progress

I’ve not spent as much time as I would have liked on Jed this week thanks to the schools being closed for the mid term break. For some reason or other I never seem to get as much work done when they’re closed and yet I never take this into account when planning ahead in my diary. Typical.

Thankfully I’m not falling behind with commissioned work but I am with possible exhibition pieces and I’ll really need to get my finger out and do something about this if I want to meet my goals for the year. A couple of days out and about with my camera should give me some much needed inspiration and hopefully great reference material to work from.

Greyhound

Jed - stage 1

I’ve started work on Jed, affectionately called the ‘dancing greyhound’ by his owners in this shot of him. Drawing Jed in this pose is a welcome change to the more traditional head studies that I do and I would always encourage anyone to go for something that little bit different.

As always, you can see the reference I am working from in the sidebar to the right.

Labradors finished

Raven and Sam
16X12 Coloured Pencil
Copyright Laura Hardie 2009

Here they are, Raven and Sam together, albeit a day later than promised - blogger was playing up yesterday and wasn’t letting me upload any photos as it does periodically.

I’ve thoroughly enjoyed working on this portrait and will miss looking at their faces every day. Next up on the drawing board is a greyhound with a difference.

Labradors - stage 4 and an award

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Sam - Stage 2
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A bit more work done on Sam who, as it turns out, is taking less time to complete than Raven. Not surprising really when I consider the time it takes to build up all the blacks in Ravens fur. Tomorrow should see this finished and a scan of the full portrait with both dogs together.

Changing topics somewhat, I am pleased to announce that my blog has been awarded an award by not one, but two fellow bloggers and artists - Elizabeth McCrindle and Lene Daugaard. Thank you both so much for this - as they say up here in Scotland, I'm well chuffed.

Something I have to do in accepting this award is to list 7 things that I love and then pass the award onto 7 of my favourite art blogs. So the 7 things I love are …..

1. My kids - couldn't live without them.
2. My art time
3. Dogs, especially labs, and the things they get up to.
4. Chocolate
5. Long summer days
6. Looking at other artists work and art books (does that constitute two?)
7. Simon Cowell (don't ask)

And the 7 blogs that I’d like to pass this award onto, in no particular order, are …..

1. Teresa Mallen
2. Rhonda Bartoe Tucker
3. Sally Lancaster
4. Alecia Underhill at Art and Horses
5. Colette Thieriault
6. Kim Ratigan
7. Steven Chipman at Wax Bloom

Labradors - stage 3

Raven

Raven is now finished, minus some whiskers that I will add at the end once Sam is in the portrait. Talking of which - this is the stage I am at just now with him.

Sam - stage 1

I am just loving their faces and the longer I look at them, the more I want one.

Labradors - stage 2

Raven - stage 2

How could you refuse those eyes? I don’t know what captured his attention or what he was patiently waiting for but I’m sure he got it looking like that.

Not much more to do – all going well I should have Raven finished tomorrow and I can make a start on Sam.

Labradors - stage 1

This week has seen me back working on commissioned portraits after my much needed short break, and what better subject to start with than a couple of beautiful labs. Labradors are not only one of my favourite breeds of dog (I’m currently fighting the urge to have one join the family) but they’re also one of my favourite to draw.

I’ve made a slight change to my normal ‘routine’ when it comes to work in progress shots for my commissions and decided to show them all on my blog and not on my website as I did in the past. My reason for this is simple – I wanted to avoid unnecessary duplication, and ultimately more work, as I would often put the same pics on both my website and blog. So for anyone who happened to follow my ‘Work in Progress’ pages on my website and wondered where they’d disappeared to, you now know. I'm hoping this will make things easier but I'm always open to suggestions if you disagree.

The labs I am working on just now are called Sam and Raven. Here is where I am now with Raven - you can see the photo I am working from in the sidebar.

Raven - stage 1

More on the Clydesdale

Clydesdale
A Work in Progress

Copyright Laura Hardie 2009

I’ve managed to do a bit more to my Clydesdale but have decided to leave it at this stage and put it away out of sight while I concentrate on something else. I thought I could see a way forward with this drawing but still managed to pick fault with practically everything about it. Very frustrating – I rarely give up on a drawing. Technically I haven’t given up as hopefully when I go back to it I will see it with fresh eyes and all the problems I currently see will magically disappear.

Something I will say in its defence – it does look better in real life. The scan seems to have zoomed in on the reds and made it look a bit garish.