Time Out
37cm x 27cm
Pencil
Copyright Laura Hardie 2011
My thanks to Steph Greaves for the use of her photograph
Has it really been over two months since my last post, think that might be a record for me and could make me a contender for the worst, or laziest, blogger if there was such an award going about! But then this is an art blog and, in my defence, I’ve not been drawing much in that time so had nothing to show - I’m guessing of course that 99.9% of my followers come to see my work and not my ramblings. Instead I’ve been doing a little bit of this and that and hidden myself away from the world of blogging while I busily work on my business plan/goals/aims for next year and generally think about where I want to go, and be, with my art……. and in my personal life. I see lots happening and big changes in 2012 so plenty to think about. I needed to sit back and take stock of (many) things and think the time out has helped - certainly made things clearer. Lots of ideas, plans and things I want to do and achieve over the coming months/year but not going to go into that here on my blog just yet. Hopefully you will see and hear about some of the changes soon enough anyway.
Something else I’ve given some thought to is my blog! I want, no, need, to make changes here too – give it an update of sorts and include new things. Something more than showing just what I’ve been drawing – yes? No? I feel I’m just ‘plodding along’ with my blog and fear losing interest in it so want to do more with it if I can. I have a few ideas I’m playing around with but if there is anything you would like to see me include/do then please let me know – all suggestions welcome.
And, despite my spending very little time at the drawing board, I still managed to include a drawing I started back in April of this year and finished recently. Hope you like it.
Max
10.5" x 10.5", Coloured Pencil
Copyright Laura Hardie 2011
Still having problems with my computer and wishing that I was friends or living with a technical genius who could fix everything for me. Why, when something goes wrong with them does it have to be so complicated and frustrating to figure out and put right! But enough about my computer and onto the real reason for this post – Max and the final scan showing him all finished and ready for approval. Loved drawing this old boy.
Max
A Work in Progress, stage 3
Copyright Laura Hardie 2011
Can’t live with it, can’t live without it, is how I feel about my computer this week! Think it’s trying to tell me something’s not right by freezing and crashing all the time but, not being in the least bit technical minded, I don’t know what. Keep hoping it’s just a phase and with lots of TLC all will go back to normal but that’s not happening unfortunately. Finally resorted to only using it when necessary for the time being which has meant I’ve got a lot more things done than usual, including drawing. On the other hand it has also meant my blog post and updates on Max are behind. Almost finished his portrait now – another day should see it done.
Max
A Work in Progress, stage 2
Copyright Laura Hardie 2011
Normally I would be doing a Dutch Auction update at this point but I don’t have any drawings left with them all, I’m delighted to say, having been sold. Will definitely consider doing another at some later date but in the meantime I’d like to take this opportunity to thank everyone again for their support and interest in my work. It means a lot to me.
Now to keeping everything crossed that my computer doesn’t crash before publishing this post!
Max
A Work in Progress
Copyright Laura Hardie 2011
Currently drawing one of my favourite subjects, a black Lab. Love, love, LOVE Labs! But then if you follow my ramblings on blogger you will already know this. I think Max might be the oldest Lab I’ve had the pleasure of drawing however – he certainly has the most grey hairs.
Inquiring Mind
Coloured Pencil, 23.5cm x 35cm
(With mount: 37.5cm x 48cm)
Copyright Laura Hardie
I only have one drawing left in the Dutch Auction as ‘Focused’ has sold and will soon be making it’s way to the US. That leaves ‘Inquiring Mind’, which strangely enough I thought would be the first to go, as the last one standing. It has dropped in price by another £20 and is now £90. If you would like more details or are interested in purchasing this drawing please email me.
Inquiring Mind
Coloured Pencil, 23.5cm x 35cm
(With mount: 37.5cm x 48cm)
Copyright Laura Hardie 2011
Have been looking back over previous posts to see when I started the Dutch Auction and couldn’t believe it was back in May – where does the time go! I started with six drawings and almost five months later, four have gone to good homes and we’re now down to the last two. So if you’ve been following, and are interested, this could be your last chance to get an original drawing at a great price. ‘Focused’ is now down to £100 and ‘Inquiring Mind’, £110. Both drawings are double-mounted ready to frame. If you would like more details on either drawing or are interested in purchasing then please email me.
Focused
Pencil, 25.5cm x 20.5cm
(With mount: 39.5cm x 33.5cm)
Copyright Laura Hardie 2011
Flea
Coloured Pencil, 10.5"x8"
Copyright Laura Hardie 2011
Just popping in quickly with the final scan of Flea, who is now finished and awaiting approval. Coloured pencils are staying out as next up on the drawing board ready to be worked on is a lovely black Lab – I predict a challenge with this one!
Flea
A Work in Progress
Copyright Laura Hardie 2011
Still working away on Flea and hope to have her finished over the next few days. I have another couple of portraits to do after this and then I am not entirely sure where my life will take me artistically after that. Without going into detail, I have had to change things in my life and there is a lot I will need to consider and think about in the coming months, especially with my art. I therefore won’t be accepting any more commissions until October/November 2012 and thought I should really mention this now on my blog as I’ve been getting a number of enquiries. My website will be updated too as soon as I can sort out a publishing problem I’m having with it. Feel quite emotional after that!
Flea
A Work in Progress
Copyright Laura Hardie 2011
Running behind again with Dutch Auction news, sorry, but hopefully you will know how it works despite my failure to keep you updated on time. There are three drawings left, all at greatly reduced prices and with a further £20 off this week - they are ‘Focused’ (£120), ‘Inquiring Mind’ (£130) and ‘Eye Contact’ (£65). This is the last chance you will get to purchase ‘Eye Contact’ (below) at this price as next week it will be removed from the auction and remain on my website at the original price of £225.
Eye Contact
Coloured Pencil, 27cm x 19.5cm
(With mount: 41cm x 32.5cm)
Copyright Laura Hardie 2011
Flea
A Work in Progress
Copyright Laura Hardie 2011
Have made a start on a new coloured pencil portrait of a very lively, so I’m told, Jack Russell Terrier. So lively that she wouldn’t stay still long enough to be photographed and ended up having to be held in the end. Even so I think the resulting photo is full of character and hope I can portray this in the finished portrait. Love her name too, Flea – seems just perfect for her somehow.
Moving onto the Dutch Auction - there are currently three drawings still available for purchase and they are ‘Focused’, now down to £140; ‘Eye Contact’, down to £85 and ‘Inquiring Mind’ at £150. As always, if you would like details or are interested in any of the above please email me.
Pointer
Coloured Pencil, 38cm x 28cm
Copyright Laura Hardie 2011
Morgan
Coloured Pencil, 32cm x 18.5cm
(With mount: 46cm x 31.5cm)
Pointer, Stage 4
A Work in Progress
Copyright Laura Hardie 2011
Making slow progress on the Pointer but I am getting there and not panicking (yet) about getting it finished in time. It’s very much been a portrait where I have jumped around doing bits here and there, going back and forth over various areas building them up but not quite finishing them and continually moving around the drawing in this way. This is typical of the way I work and more often than not will do a drawing this way rather than finish one area to completion before moving onto the next (though I am known to do this also dependant on how I feel at the time). So why tell you this? I’ve had a few people ask if I can explain my process and while I’m more than happy to do this I’m left questioning if I have a process or method as such and have therefore been giving it a lot of thought while working on the Pointer, trying to think how I can break what I do down. There would certainly be a lot of stages:) Even if I can include more in-progress shots and let you know what has been done, colours used, etc. It has been duly noted anyway.
Pointer, Stage 3
A Work in Progress
Copyright Laura Hardie 2011
German Shorthair Pointer, Stage 1
A Work in Progress
Copyright Laura Hardie
Intrigue
Pencil, 25.5cm x 21.5cm
Copyright Laura Hardie 2011
Monday again! I had hoped to have some in-progress shots of the drawing I’m currently working on to show today but it’s still in the early stages. Time hasn’t been on my side unfortunately so not as much drawing getting done as I’d like. Going to lock myself away for the rest of the week to catch up.
Drawings in the Dutch Auction have dropped another £20 today which means Intrigue (above) is down to £190; ‘Focused’, £220; ‘Eye Contact’, £165; ‘Morgan’, £130 and ‘Inquiring Mind’, £230. You can see all drawings and how the auction works here.
Eye Contact
Coloured Pencil
Copyright Laura Hardie 2011
Is it just me or are the weeks getting shorter. Either that or I’m getting worse at managing my time effectively as I always seem to be playing catch-up with everything lately - like doing this blog post which should have been done yesterday! It’s just a very quick post too so I can bring you up to date with the Dutch Auction – prices on all drawings have dropped another £20 with ‘Eye Contact’ (above) now £185; ‘Focused’, £240; ‘Intrigue’, £210; ‘Morgan’, £150 and ‘Inquiring Mind’, £250. If you are interested in any of the drawings in the auction and would like more information please feel free to drop me an email.
Focused
Pencil, 25.5cm x 20.5cm
Copyright Laura Hardie 2011
I don’t have a new drawing, in progress or finished, to share today although I am working on one of a German Shorthaired Pointer in coloured pencil. I felt I should have something to show though as my post feels naked without an image so I’ve put one of the drawings currently in the Dutch Auction up – it being the reason for this post after all.
Monday means prices on all drawings have dropped £20 and ‘Focused’ (above) is now £260. ‘Intrigue’ is down to £230, ‘Eye Contact’, £205, ‘Morgan’, £170, and ‘Inquiring Mind’, £270. To see these drawings again just scroll down slightly to my earlier post.
Intrigue
Pencil, 25.5cm x 21.5cm
(With mount: 39.5cm x 34.5cm)
Copyright Laura Hardie 2011
Starting price: £250
Focused
Pencil, 25.5cm x 20.5cm
(With mount: 39.5cm x 33.5cm)
Copyright Laura Hardie 2011
Starting price: £280
Eye Contact
Coloured Pencil, 27cm x 19.5cm
(With mount: 41cm x 32.5cm)
Copyright Laura Hardie 2011
Starting price: £225
Inquiring Mind
Coloured Pencil, 23.5cm x 35cm
(With mount: 37.5cm x 48cm)
Copyright Laura Hardie 2011
Starting price: £290
Should you be interested in any of the above and would like more information please drop me an email.
Stuart
8"x10", Pencil on Fabriano Artistico Paper
Copyright Laura Hardie 2011
Drawing time has been compromised slightly thanks to T in the Park – well the run up to it at least. A lot of running around with daughter to get last minute essentials and now looking forward to them all coming back, including child, caked in mud! She enjoys herself so that’s what counts and I will be reminding myself of this when I’m knee deep in muddy clothes and chiselling off caked mud from her wellies.
Stuart is officially finished - he has been approved so no changes to be made and I’ve refrained from tweaking. It’s now back to colour with a coloured pencil portrait and painting to do next.
Stuart
A Work in Progress
Copyright Laura Hardie 2011
Copyright Laura Hardie 2011
'Morgan'
Coloured Pencil, 32cm x 18.5cm
(With mount: 46cm x 31.5cm)
Copyright Laura Hardie 2011
As of last Monday there is a new drawing up for offer in the Dutch Auction with ‘Curiosity’ now sold and currently on its way to the US. It’s a coloured pencil drawing this time of a Morgan horse titled, believe it or not, ‘Morgan’. Drawn on Fabriano Artistico paper the image size is 32cm x 18.5cm and with mount (it comes double mounted/matted) the overall size is 46cm x 31.5cm. Regular readers of my blog will know by now how the Auction works but for anyone new and for those who can’t quite remember it basically works as follows ……
1. One drawing at a time will be auctioned here on my blog.
2. Every Monday the price will drop by £20 until it is either sold or reaches a predetermined and undisclosed reserve price and taken out of the auction.
3. Purchases will be made on a first-come-first-serve basis. Notifications should be made by way of email (see my contact details on sidebar).
4. Payments are accepted by credit/debit card via PayPal or cheque (UK bank accounts only).
5. Postage is an additional cost and will be determined by your location.
The starting price for ‘Morgan’ was £250 and as I’m going to be too busy drawing tomorrow to find the time to do anything else, including blogging, will drop the price by £20 a day early to £230.
Stella
10"x8" Pencil on Fabriano Artistico paper
Copyright Laura Hardie 2011
And she’s finished! Now just needs to be approved and she can be on the way to her new home. Always feel a bit sad when a drawing goes as I get used to whoever I’m working on looking out at me from the drawing board every day – will have a Staffordshire Bull Terrier followed by a Jack Russell Terrier to do that soon.
With it being Monday I can’t forget the Dutch Auction of ‘Curiosity’ which is now in it’s seventh week already. Where has the time gone! As of today the price has dropped by another £20 down to £80. This really is a great chance to take advantage of my ‘spring clearout’ and get an original, signed pencil drawing at such a low price. It won’t be up for auction much longer and, if it doesn’t sell, will be taken out and will only be available to purchase from my website at the original cost. So if you've perhaps been wondering 'should I, shouldn't I' for the past few weeks take advantage now before it's too late.
I’d like to finish this post by welcoming all the new followers to my blog as I noticed I now have 900! I honestly didn’t believe I’d get anywhere near half that when I started blogging and I'm delighted you like my work enough to come back and see what I’m up to next. A very happy artist indeed:)
Stella
A Work in Progress
10"x8" Pencil
Copyright Laura Hardie 2011
Working my way slowly across Stella’s body and you can now see the star-like marking on her chest. Next update should see her finished.
Stella
A Work in Progress
10"x8" Pencil
Copyright Laura Hardie 2011
Curiosity
24.5cm a 19cm, Pencil
Copyright Laura Hardie 2011
Pencils are busy and not a lot of time so just a very quick post to say that ‘Curiosity’ is now down to the bargain price of £100. Get it now before it goes!
A Work in Progress
Copyright Laura Hardie 2011
I think fairies must be visiting during the night and rubbing out bits of my latest drawing as I’m continually having to go over areas I’d already done and was happy to call finished. I’d hoped to be showing the finished drawing today too but I’m not quite there yet. It’s been a challenging drawing, not only with having to re-do the bits the fairies deleted, but tonally too and getting them just right. Lots of subtle tones and building up of layers.
Can’t believe it’s week 5 of the Dutch Auction of ‘Curiosity’ already – where has the time gone. This of course means that as of yesterday it is now down to £120!
A Work in Progress
Copyright Laura Hardie 2011
Pencils are out, paperwork is up to date, house is tidy, chores are done, no appointments to attend (well apart from one tomorrow:)) and feeling relatively organised so time to get back to the drawing board. Seems such a long time since I’ve sat down and done a proper days drawing. I’ve been working on this horse here and there for quite a few weeks now but not made a great deal of progress with other things taking priority so I’m hoping that I can get it finished by Sunday. Can’t see it being a problem if I can refrain from going back to areas that are finished – if you only knew the amount of times I’ve gone back to those front legs!
I’m a day late for the Dutch Auction of ‘Curiosity’ and if you have been following this you will know that the price has dropped by another £20 to £140. Normally I would show an image of ‘Curiosity’ at this point but as I have done so in my last three posts felt it a bit much to put it up yet again but you can see it, and details of the Auction, here.
Curiosity
Copyright Laura Hardie 2011
Dutch Auction drawing ‘Curiosity’ has dropped in price by a further £20 to £160 today. If you missed my earlier post the auction basically works as follows…..
1. One drawing at a time will be auctioned here on my blog.
2. Every Monday the price will drop by £20 until it is either sold or reaches a predetermined and undisclosed reserve price and taken out of the auction.
3. Purchases will be made on a first-come-first-serve basis. Notifications should be made by way of email (see my contact details on sidebar).
4. Payments are accepted by credit/debit card via PayPal or cheque (UK bank accounts only).
5. Postage is an additional cost and will be determined by your location.
Curiosity
22cm x 19cm, Pencil on Fabriano Artistico paper
36cm x 32cm with mount/matt
Copyright Laura Hardie 2011
Curiosity
22cm x 19cm, pencil on Fabriano Artistico paper
With mount, 36cm x 32 cm
£200
Copyright Laura Hardie 2011
Labrador, A Work in Progress, Copyright Laura Hardie 2011
Yet another long delay between posts, not good but I do have a reasonably good excuse – I’ve not been drawing and so had nothing to show. And I didn’t think you would want to know about my life away from the drawing board – that could have been a long post with nothing to look at! When I say I haven’t been drawing what I probably should say is I am not putting in the hours I normally do and instead working a little bit here and an even littler (grammatically incorrect I know but I like it:)) bit there when the mood takes me – waiting on my motivation to come back as it seems to have gone. Think I need to get out and about with my camera more to give me inspiration.
In the meantime I’m going to continue working away on my latest Lab, see above. Again this is pencil on Mellotex paper, my paper of choice recently, but I’m starting to dislike working on it and need to try out other papers – think it’s maybe just too smooth for my liking and I’m missing the tooth you get with hot pressed watercolour paper. I still have a paper not dissimilar to Mellotex that I want to try. Only small pieces as they were samples sent to me by another artist so maybe a small drawing next.
Before I go I must tell you about my website as I’ve had several emails enquiring where it has gone. I’d been thinking for some time about changing my domain name and have now done so. I think I have updated everywhere I can think of with my new address but incase I have missed somewhere it is now http://www.laurahardie.com. A few changes been made to it too.
Home Straight
26.5cm x 34cm
Pencil on Mellotex paper
Copyright Laura Hardie 2011
Didn’t quite meet my goal of having all three drawings finished by the end of February, only managing to do two in the end. Not that it was a problem in any way as the last drawing is now complete and I’m happy with how they have turned out which is what matters at the end of the day. But for what it’s worth I blame the Lusitano and my underestimating the time it would take to do as there was a lot more work involved than I thought there would be:))
Odds On
30.5cm x 38cm
Pencil on Mellotex paper
Copyright Laura Hardie 2011
My thanks to Sarah Clegg for the use of her photographs
‘Home Straight’, ‘Odds On’ and ‘On Show’ (the Lusitano) are all now available for sale and details can be found on my website.
Not sure what I’m going to be drawing next – have enjoyed my horses and I’m still thinking equine. But I also feel like experimenting and playing around with mixed media for a bit so anything could happen really.
Pencil on Mellotex Paper
Copyright Laura Hardie 2011
Work In Progress
Copyright Laura Hardie 2011
My thanks to Sarah Clegg for allowing me to use her photograph
Work in Progress
Graphite pencil on Mellotex paper
Copyright Laura Hardie 2011
My drawing of two horses ended up beating me in the end and it’s been put to one side for finishing another day – it was the jockeys that finally did it and I blame them entirely! Or more specifically their silks, I’m not a huge fan of drawing clothing and find I have the attention span of a gnat when faced with it. So rather than spend wasted time looking for things to do rather than jockeys I started a new drawing as shown in the image above. A similar theme but with only one horse this time. I’m really enjoying drawing full bodies as opposed to a head study.
I don’t know if it’s something in the air or what but this drawing has been ‘abandoned’ too for the time being while I’ve made a start on yet another drawing. Three drawings on the go at once is almost unheard of from me (rebel that I am:)) I’m more your one drawing at a time kind of girl, but it does keep things interesting - less likely to loose motivation for a piece this way. I do have a deadline and I want to get all three finished by the end of February which at this point in time doesn’t look as if it should be a problem.
