Border Collie montage - finished

Bill and Molly
20x16 Coloured Pencil
Private commission

Again I find I’ve deserted my blog but must admit I hadn’t realised it had been so long since my last post. Keeping a blog definitely brings home, for me anyway, just how quickly time flies. In my defence I didn’t have anything finished to show or anything remotely interesting to say or report.

I’ve spent a lot of time working on my montage which I am pleased to say is now finished and been approved. Working on this for so long and looking at their photos on almost a daily basis for the last month or so, I feel like I have really got to know both dogs personally and will miss them.

Something completely different I’ve been working on and recently finished is a pencil portrait of two ladies, another commissioned piece. Graphite is definitely my preferred medium when drawing people but I still use the same technique as I would if using coloured pencils – slowly building up layer after layer of pencil until I get the depth I am after. I also tend to prefer the harder lead – here I used a 5H, 4H, 2H, H, B and 2B.

16x12 Graphite Pencil
Private commission

Next on my easel are two black labs and I will blog my progress as I work on them. Also need to finish work for the UKCPS exhibition – closing date for entries is the 9th July so had better get a move on.

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.

Springer Spaniel update

Regular readers of my blog may remember my Springer Spaniel montage - well I am happy to say it is nearing completion having spent the last few days working on it.

This definately comes top of my 'embarrassingly late' list as I have been working on it on and off now for four months. I have never taken this long with a commission - I wont go into the whys and whatnots but am so grateful to my client for being more than understanding and patient.

The main pic of Meg amongst the reeds is now finished and I managed to get a pic of this for you to see, although not a great one due to the crop. Gives you an idea at least. All that's left to do now is the pheasant.