Collies finished

Tetley
Copyright Laura Hardie 2009

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It’s been four weeks in the making but with Tetley now finished and part of the group, the portrait is finally completed. It will remain on my drawing board over the weekend for me to look at and check for any ‘touch-ups’ that I think it might need. Then it’ll be a trip to my framers for the mount – I’m thinking ‘coal grey’ to compliment the dogs colouring but we’ll see.

Barney, Sam, Spike and Tetley
Copyright Laura Hardie 2009

I have a few days left before I need to make a start on my next commission and for a bit of a change I’d thought about dusting off my paintbrushes to start a painting – what of though, I’ve yet to decide. But then again I’ve wanted to do a pencil drawing of my son for ages now so might make a start on that. Of course if the weather turns out to be nice there is the option there to take advantage of it. Decisions, decisions.

Nearly there

Meet Tetley, the last Collie in the line up. Over the last few days he has been slowly emerging from the paper and is now nearing completion – not too much more to do on him overall. All going well the next couple of days should see this portrait finished.

Tetley
A Work in Progress
Copyright Laura Hardie

Another addition to the group portrait

It’s been over three weeks now that I’ve been working away on nothing but the Collies and when you spend that amount of time on a portrait you can’t help but get attached to it – at least I can’t. It will be strange not seeing them sitting there on my drawing board looking out at me every day and I will honestly be sad to see this one go.

Spike is now finished and joins the group.

Spike
Copyright Laura Hardie

Barney, Sam and Spike
Copyright Laura Hardie

Next up, and last of the four, is Tetley.

More Collies

Moving on now to Spike, the only black tri-coloured collie in the group. He adds a nice splash of colour to the portrait I think.

Spike
A Work in Progress

Second Collie finished

Sam
Copyright Laura Hardie

Two down, two to go. I’m not completely happy with the scan of Sam as it hasn’t picked up a lot of the lighter pencil marks in his neck area making it look ‘bleached out’ in places – the original looks better, trust me:)

And how Barney and Sam look together in the portrait so far.

Barney and Sam
Copyright Laura Hardie

More on the Border Collies

I’m still working away on the Collie portrait and so far it looks like I’m managing to only complete one a week. With four Collies in the group, this portrait should in effect take a couple more weeks to finish although I’m secretly hoping to have it done before then.

Sam was next in line for his portrait. Being very similar in colouring to Barney I was able to more or less use the same pencils which saved me some time at the start – I spend a lot of time before I start a portrait choosing the right colours and then proceed to add lots more as it progresses.

Tomorrow should see him finished and then it's onto Spike.

Sam
A Work in Progress

First Collie finished

Barney
Copyright Laura Hardie 2009

Haven’t the last four days been wonderful. It is very rarely we get weather like this – sunshine and blue skies from dawn to dusk – that I had to make the most of it. It could after all be our quota for the year, although if those at the met office are to be believed, we can expect a lot more throughout the summer months – lovely:)

I did manage to get Barney finished before my mini break from the drawing board which I’m pleased about. I’ve now made a start on Sam and should blog some progress shots within the next few days.

Making a start on the Collies

Next up on my drawing board is a group portrait of four Border Collies. The overall portrait will be 20x16 inches and in order to fit all four dogs into the agreed composition, which is based on a photo taken with them all in the back of a truck, each dog has to be slightly smaller than I am used to drawing. This is bearing in mind that the smallest sized portrait I do is 10x8 inches. It just means I need to keep my pencils that bit sharper to get all the fine details in.

First up, working left to right, is Barney. And the progress shots so far.

Barney
A Work in Progress

Border Collie Montage - a WIP continued

Work on the Border Collie montage continues, albeit slowly – I say slowly as it is taking a lot longer to finish than I’d planned with just under 75 hours spent on it so far. The dogs are almost finished, just need to work on the legs and white areas of fur on the sitting dogs as well as the inevitable touch ups here and there.

That just leaves the background to do, with all those greens (sigh). I know how I want to go with this and how I want it to look but somehow I don’t think my vision will materialise onto paper if I jump in and do this straight away. So I'm putting it to one side for a couple of days to go back to it with fresh eyes but also to give me time to play around with my paints and pencils and see what different shades of green I can mix - I prefer to mix/blend colours where possible as green straight from the tube can be too bright and garish, not what I am after. Lots of grass studies as well I think before I move on to the montage.

Border Collie Montage - a WIP

WIP
20X16 Coloured Pencil

All my art time has been spent recently working on a montage of two beautiful Border Collies. Being 20x16 inches and mainly in coloured pencil, it is taking many an hour to complete, with many still to go, but I do think the end result is worth it.

So far I have completed the main head studies and have made a start on the background (although you can't see this in the cropped pic above), which in this case will be a view of Irton Fell in Cumbria. Completing the background will be interesting as I’m at my least comfortable when it comes to working with greens, I always have been and probably always will. Thankfully there aren’t that many green animals about or I really would be in trouble:) I'm hoping, weather permitting, to get a photo showing the full montage soon - watch this space.