German Shepherd in pastels

This week I've put my pencils, and horses, to one side and got messy with pastels. The mess I get in isn't a problem, it's the dust they create I'm not overly fond of.

The reason for bringing my pastels out was to do my latest commission - a beautiful German Shepherd by the name of Tango. I loved the photos I was sent of him - so full of character.

Here are a couple of 'in-progress' shots and a 'where I am at now' one. All going well, I hope to have him finished and at my framers by the end of the week.

More horses

A work in progress - coloured pencil on paper

This week has seen the schools closed for the holidays so, as is always the case when the kids are off, I've had a lazy week doing not a lot.

When I have picked up my pencils it's been to work on another horse, well pony to be exact. What you see here is where I am now - pre-background, with the horse more or less finished. This will be no.3 in my series, leaving 32 still to do by the end of the year. I can't help thinking I've bitten off more than I can chew with this goal, especially with the speed I work at. Thirty five was a bit ambitious and, if I'm being honest, don't think I've fully thought this one through - we can but see.

Away from the easel I have been playing with my blog. I still haven't found a way to add my banner without having to change templates but thanks to FeedBurner, there is now the option to subscribe to my blog and get updates via RSS feed or via e-mail direct to your inbox. I'm sure I've done everything right and all is in working order but do let me know if you experience any problems.

Horse in pencil

8x10 Graphite pencil

This is a horse I have had in my 'to-do' file for a while now - photo courtesy of Wetcanvas. My original intention was to do this in colour but changed my mind after enjoying working with pencil again when doing Duke, the Newfoundland.

I used pencil all the time before I discovered coloured pencils and they took over, so it was nice to re-acquaint myself with this medium. The downside - I have never been happy with how graphite scans, or photographs for that matter, and always think a lot of the detail is lost.

Technical difficulties

Duke
10x12 Graphite Pencil

Note to self: don't play around with things I know nothing about! In this case it was Blogger when trying to update my blog template.

To cut a long stort short, I wanted to add my own header with pics along the top of my blog - others have done it so I knew it was possible. Experience now tells me only to those who know what they're doing. All I achieved was a new template that 'messed up' all my previous posts - the font was changed in some parts but not others, the spacing was all wrong so everything looked squashed and, to finish me off, some of my pics were deleted and replaced with a red cross.

Thankfully, after spending hours trawling bloggers help pages I found out there is a little button I could press to revert back to my old template - problem solved(ish). I still don't have my header. I'm not computer literate, far from it, but if there is anyone reading this who knows how to add a header/banner without having to change to a fancy template I would LOVE to know. You can leave a comment or email me.

It never ceases to amaze me just how dependant I am on the computer in this business. You would think being an artist that computer skills weren't a necessity. Instead I find myself relying on it more and more but at the same time feeling totally clueless. It's not that I haven't tried to get on with it because I do - all the time. I've lost count of the number of hours I've spent trying to master photoshop for example, but it just doesn't register. If only they'd taught me this at Art College.

A horse in progress part 2

A work in progress - Coloured Pencil on paper

Looking at my desk today - unorganised chaos with coloured pencils everywhere - set me thinking how I should really come up with a better storage solution for them. Not that I haven’t been thinking about it, or looking for that perfect ‘thing’ for some time now. Something that could rotate would be good.

My problem is that I have literally hundreds of pencils – some may think far too many but believe it or not I use them all, bright yellows, greens and pinks excluded. To give you an idea of just how many, I have sets of Derwent Artist (my favourite), Studio, Signature and Coloursoft, Prismacolor, Prismacolor Verithin, FC Polychromos, Lyra Rembrandt and a good number of Caran d’Ache Pablo’s. And that doesn’t include my watercolour pencils! I like them all for different reasons. I suppose you could say I am to coloured pencils what Imelda Marcos was to shoes.

Anyway, no matter how I store them I always find I spend too long looking for the pencil I want, which gets frustrating at times, and I normally end up with pencils everywhere. Then there is the problem of finding the perfect inventory system that will ensure I don’t run out of pencils, but that’s another story.

Any ideas gratefully received.

A horse in progress

I've been working on this drawing of a horse on and off for the last couple of weeks - she's big and will be 14x10 inches when finished. Why I chose to do it quite so big I'm not sure as it's taking me aaaaages to do. This is approximately 15 hours so far.

Not that I'm complaining as I'm really enjoying it. I love horses, they're beautiful animals ......... to look at and draw. I don't mind admitting to being slightly - ok, very - wary of them and I blame it all on a traumatic childhood experience with a rogue horse.

I would tell you about it but it would take too long and I'm rubbish at telling stories, but what I will say is that it involved a HUGE horse - no, really it was; an ill fitting hard hat (i.e. far too big); lots of tree branches and of course, me. It was enough to put me off horses for good and the reason why I couldn't ride off into the sunset with my knight in shining armour - that bit really gets me!

Artist's block

Osker
10x12 Coloured Pencil

This week has seen me thinking a lot about exhibitions and in particular those I would like to submit work to - I thought I should get myself organised early. This led to my timetable, handing in dates etc, then panic. I don't have any finished work I would be happy with going into an exhibition.

This isn't the problem though - I knew I wanted to work on drawings and paintings specifically for this reason and had set the time aside to do so. It's what to do I'm having problems with. I think I've been working to commission for too long without a break to do my own work, that I can't see past vignettes and head studies!

I've been looking for inspiration and that perfect reference but nothing has jumped out at me screaming to be drawn. Even things on my 'must do' list seem uninteresting just now - it must be some form of Artist's block. I just hope it's a mild case I have and nothing serious. In the meantime my search will continue.

Weimaraner

Ben 2
8x10 Coloured Pencil

Just a small post today if only to let you know I'm still here and not forgotten no.9 on my goals for 2008.

This is my first commissioned portrait, started and finished this year. Thinking about this, it doesn't seem a lot considering we are now half way through January and I'm working more hours (thanks to no.2 of goals), but there are more - I haven't just worked on this drawing. I did spend a lot of time getting his colouring right however, if I was to think about it some more!

Weimaraners are beautiful dogs but seem to change colour dependant on the light. In some photos Ben's fur had a lot of pinky/peachy tones, in others he was more of a grey colour and yet in others he definately leant towards the browns. So what did I do? Put them all in.

Almost forgot

12x16 acrylic and coloured pencil

Remember this one? I didn't until I came across it again while tidying and sorting out my studio and remembered I hadn't actually finished the WIP on my blog. So this is the final stage, currently titleless, but with whiskers and a background added. I'm still undecided about whether I like working with coloured pencils on Ampersand Pastelbord - I lean more towards 'like' but need to complete a few more to fully make my mind up.

What you see has been cropped, thanks to my scanner, and the dog actually sits more to the right of the composition rather than centred as she looks here. Once I get my printer set up - or should I say, once I build an extension to house it (it's HUGE) and take a proper photo, I plan to turn this into prints.

Happy New Year

Ben
10x8 Coloured Pencil

First things first, before I start my ramblings on todays post I’d like to wish you all a happy New Year and hope it’s a productive one for everyone.

I spent the first day of the New Year ‘spring cleaning’ – my studio included. Actually, I had intended on only doing my studio and decided that with it looking so clean and tidy I’d do the sitting room….. then it was the stairs….. then it had to be the kitchen….. the bedrooms….. the…….. you get the idea. Anyway most importantly, I now have a tidy studio with everything in its right place, which is what I set out to do.

With 2007 now at an end I find myself, like many others, thinking about successes of the past year and my plans for the year ahead and what I want to achieve. 2007 saw me working 95% of the time on commissioned work and the other 5% on my own work. This is a success in itself in that I had my busiest year yet with commissions – I am obviously being found one way or another which is excellent as I am hopeless at optimising my website with the search engines and people like my work enough to commission me. I also became tutor for the Coloured Pencil Course with the London Art College, which I’m really enjoying and have great visions for – what a perfect way to promote coloured pencils and work with students with a similar passion for them – maybe the ‘passion’ comes later. However, I didn’t achieve a lot of what I set out to do.

To be fair, this time last year I didn’t have a set plan – I had a new puppy to look after (an incredibly hyperactive one at that with bladder and bowel problems) which took up a surprising amount of time and I had commissions to tide me over for a few months, so there was no rush – right? Well, as it turned out - wrong.

I do remember being extremely tired thanks to our new arrival and didn’t - couldn’t - really think about goals. And when I did start to think about them seriously, it was just that – I thought! I a) didn’t write them down and b) obviously wasn’t committed enough to see them through. So this year I am going to write them down and not only that – thanks to Maggie Stiefvater and her ‘butt-kicking’ post on goals, I am showing all on my blog. There is good reasoning and truth behind her words – the more people that see my goals, the more real they are and it makes me accountable to them. With this in mind my goals for 2008, in no particular order, are……

1. Better time management – I’m the first to admit that I could have completed and achieved more in 2007 had I managed my time better, i.e. mainly more time in the studio and less time in front of the TV and computer – which leads me onto no.2.

2. More studio time and less computer time – I spend way too long on the computer although, in my defence, it is all art related. I have a long list of blogs (which keeps getting longer) I enjoy visiting, not to mention the forums and what I call ‘research’. A lot of it can be educational so I don’t feel too guilty - I just need to allocate a set time, no matter how hard this may be, to computer time.

3. Enter work into at least two exhibitions – I had planned to do this last year, and the year before if I remember correctly, but concentrated more on my portrait business and marketing it. Hopefully nos. 1 and 2 will see me with a lot more time on my hands to see this goal through. My favourite medium is coloured pencil so I have earmarked the ‘UKCPS Open International Exhibition’ as a definite and am currently contemplating others.

4. Complete a painting a month – I don’t do enough painting but enjoy it when I do. I’d like to develop my techniques in both oils and acrylics and try to stop treating the brush like a pencil, which I tend to do.

5. Print, market and sell my prints – Again another goal I had planned (in my head admittedly) for 2007. I’d like to move more towards this market, as I believe, rightly or wrongly, that there is a current trend towards purchasing prints rather than originals.

6. Draw and paint 35 horses by the end of the year – I half-heartedly started this last year although didn’t put a figure on it. The figure came after being inspired by an artist on WC who took it upon herself to draw and paint 100 cheetah - it was great to watch her progression and to see her confidence in portraying this animal grow. I originally considered setting the target at 50, almost 1 a week, but decided this was unrealistic and I’d more than likely be stretching myself to get this done – anyhow, I hope by the time I get to no.35 I will know a horses temporal fossa from its mandible.

7. Visit more exhibitions and galleries – At least one a month. I live in Edinburgh and am surrounded by galleries so have no excuse not to. I often leave exhibitions totally inspired to try something new, which is reason enough, and yes, wishing it was my work on display – a goal for 2009 perhaps?

8. Backgrounds – I’ve mentioned this before in my blog and want to look more at including backgrounds in my work, maybe include the animal within its environment and surroundings? I do prefer the plain background approach and very often don’t include one at all when doing commissions. Paul Emsley summed it up for me when he said “I leave the background as a fairly nebulous space instead of depicting a particular environment. A non-explicit background, while directing the focus to the person or animal, infers a sense of stillness and timelessness, and it enhances the feeling of mystery”. Although I’m sure I wont be doing intricate and highly detailed backgrounds, it’s definitely something I want to look into this year.

9. Keep my blog up to date – I’m always promising this but I mean it this time – promise. I’m hoping the fact that it is one of my goals and is written in black and white will spur me on.

10. Build up a portfolio of work and prints – I couldn’t decide what to end with for no.10. I’d like to become more computer savvy and technical minded as I find myself relying on the computer more and more for my business and don’t know enough about them – Photoshop especially. And there’s photography – I have a top of the range camera I don’t know how to use to it’s full potential so know I am missing out on some fantastic reference material. Taking time to master the computer and the camera is something I want/need to do but am not going to make them priority this year. Instead I have gone for ‘building up a portfolio of work and prints’ in preparation for my goals in 2009 – how is that for forward thinking.

So there you have it, my goals for 2008 and a rather lengthy blog post as well. Now all I have to do is print them off and stick them where I can see them daily – I know just the place.

Merry Christmas

Red
10x12 Coloured Pencil

Posted the last of my Christmas commissions off this morning so can now take a deep breath and relax. Not sure if relax is the right word I should be using just now, especially as there's still Christmas shopping and loads of wrapping to do ........ oh well!

It's been a busy year for me commission wise, I'm pleased to say, and I've had the pleasure of drawing some really beautiful dogs along the way. Some of my drawings have gone as far as Singapore, Spain and America which is great. I've also had some wonderful feedback from both my customers and those who've come across my work and taken the time to email me and I'd like to take this opportunity to thank everyone for their support, it means a lot to me.

Commissioned work aside, I have to admit to being disappointed with the achievements made in my own work in that I simply didn't get enough done and failed to meet the goals I had set myself earlier in the year. I would have liked to have done a lot more with my work but, as is always the case with me, there just were not enough hours in the day.

These plans and goals still stand however, and I'm determined to see them through in the coming year. There are so many things I want to do - and try! But, first things first as they say and for me that is getting everything organised for Christmas and making sure it comes and goes as peacefully as possible.

Merry Christmas.

Getting there .....

Slowly but surely. I'm starting to feel organised again after getting so far behind with everything in November. Emails have been dealt with, paperwork is up to date, assessments have been sent, my website's updated, Christmas cards have been written (so pleased with this one after last year) and I'm getting there with my commissions - only two left to finish before Christmas. AND I've done the majority of my Christmas shopping - would you believe that after 8 hours shopping last week I still have more to do!!

So what have I been working on? This is my latest commission, two Border Collies called Bill (black and tan) and Ixannaq (Ixy for short). I just love Ixy's nose! Strange, I know.

Hellooooooo

Eric
10x8 Colour Pencil

What a month, and none of it pleasant. Fingers crossed, touch wood, etc, my headaches appear to be clearing thanks to a course of antibiotics, and I'm starting to feel and look human again.

I've never realised quite how debilitating headaches can be - I was totally useless and could often only manage one or two hours a day on my commissions. Needless to say I have a mountain of things to get through - emails, assessments, commissions, paper work, not to mention Christmas shopping.

I'd like to say this has all been done but unfortunately it hasn't and I HATE the shops at this time of year. I'll need to get my finger out soon as my daughter is starting to wonder whether she'll get anything under the tree this year. Then there's the wrapping (groan). Why does the run up to Christmas invariably turn out to be major stressful? It's enough to give anyone tension headaches and those I could well do without, thank you.

Another Cocker Spaniel

I don't know if it's the weather, something in the air or the stress that comes with the run up to Christmas but I've not been feeling myself these past two weeks - all headachy. Feeling like this does not help when you have to do close, detailed drawings so let's just say not enough's been getting done.

Something I did manage to finish despite all my suffering and pain was this beautiful Cocker Spaniel with very curly ears - my favourite.

A WIP - Part 2

Back again with more of an update really on how my 'experiment' on Ampersand Pastelbord is coming along.

Have now finished the neck area and I am calling it done - minus the whiskers and, of course, the inevitable touch-ups I feel need doing after living with it for a while. BUT as you will no doubt notice, it is still without a background.

I have never been happy doing backgrounds for head studies - you can see this in my work - preferring to leave the white of the paper. Do they really need one? I'm not totally averse to them and will add one if requested to when doing a commission or if I feel it would benefit from having one - if I need to make a lot of white hair or whiskers stand out for example. Having said all this I do want to incorporate backgrounds more into my own work in the future and need to work on this.

If not done correctly a background can be overpowering, not harmonize with the subject or even worse, the subject could end up looking as if it has been stuck on. For these reasons alone I should have worked on the background while I was doing the dog and not left it to last - naughty I know and would probably get a slap on the wrist from many an artist for doing so. I was thinking about it all the way through, honest.

I just hope that whatever I choose to do for this drawing works otherwise I will have wasted 16+ hours working on the dog - another good reason for doing the background first or at the same time.

A WIP - Part One

I love trying out new supports to work on when I can - cue Ampersand Pastelbord. I have various sizes and colours of this sitting around waiting to be used and thought it was about time I tried it out.

For those of you who may not have heard of Pastelbord it is, and I quote, "a clay and gesso coated hardboard panel with a granular marble dust finish comparable to a sanded pastel paper except more durable and more versatile." Sounds like it could eat my pencils but I was eager to try it out all the same and see what it could do. And why not have my efforts shown as a WIP. So here it is.....

Stage 1: Adding the darks. I wanted to start with an acrylic underpainting before adding any pencils - this would/should reduce the number of hours spent using coloured pencils. Was pleasantly surprised with how the paint took to this surface and really liked the effects achieved when doing wet in wet. Also found the washes stayed wet for longer which gets a big thumbs up from me.

Stage 2: The underpainting finished. At this stage I know I should be thinking about a background and have this washed in but, as is usually the case when it comes to backgrounds, can't decide what I want to do so leave it as it is for now. I do know I want to do a lot more painting on Pastelbord.

Stage 3: Adding coloured pencil. Start with the eyes, as always, and work on her nose and mouth. I was right, it does eat my pencils! Not sure yet if I like working with coloured pencils on this support.

Stage 4: Adding yet more coloured pencil. Nose and mouth area more or less finished apart from the inevitable tidying up here and there at the end. Building up the colours on her face and ear - not having to do as many layers thanks to the underpainting. STILL thinking about a background, even when I'm not working on it!

Stage 5: Latest update. This is the stage I am at now - working my way down the neck area. Next step is putting in that background.

Holidays

Odie
12x10 Coloured Pencil

Commission

Last week saw the schools on holiday again. I know I've said this before but I honestly don't remember having as many holidays when I was at school. Luckily my kids are now at an age where they are happy to amuse themselves and are rarely ever in anyway so I didn't have to spend the week thinking of things to do to keep them amused. A good thing really considering my work load in the run up to Christmas - can't see me having any days off for a good while yet.

Galleries

Odie
A work in progress - coloured pencil

I've been thinking a lot lately about how I never make time (that word again) to go to more art galleries. There are at least 45 art galleries in Edinburgh, according to the Yellow Pages, so have plenty to choose from and no excuses not to visit something on a more regular basis.

I really enjoy going around a good exhibition, often coming away full of inspiration, and so found myself browsing the Internet to find out who and what was showing this month. I managed to drag Gav along to a small local gallery as I recognised one of the artists exhibiting as being someone I went to college with all these years ago, be it a couple of years above me. I enjoyed seeing his work - more contemporary than traditional - and would have loved to have caught up with him personally but he works and lives in Dundee.

One thing I always hope to see being exhibited more are drawings - it's all paintings. Anything coloured pencil would be good but I wouldn't be fussy as long as it wasn't paint all the time. The gallery owner I spoke to yesterday never accepts drawings saying they don't sell and there isn't a market for them - not very encouraging.

As I only have a half finished portrait to show in this post, Odie (who by the way has the cutest wee face), I thought I'd let you see the ref I'll be using for my next 'me piece' that I'll be working on between commissions. It's one I took of Zara on her first birthday, waiting ever so patiently for her biscuit.

Working on Ampersand Pastelbord with paint and coloured pencils this will be a first for me - an experiment - and all going well hope to show it as a WIP right here on my blog - ugly stages and all!

Cocker Spaniels

Morse and Lewis
16x12 Coloured Pencil
Commission

My latest portrait of two Cocker Spaniels is now finished - 33 hours later, taking slightly longer than I had planned. I blame it on the ears. I'm going to be honest here, I've never been totally happy doing Spaniels ears in coloured pencil (and I love their floppy ears) but don't have this problem with pastel or paint.

It's all those layers of curls and flicks going this way and that and trying to create depth at the same time that I find a bit daunting. Strange I know but true all the same. Despite my 'struggle', and I'm sure we all have them, I'm really pleased with how they turned out.

Is there a subject you find challenging or dislike doing? Do let me know and help make me feel less guilty about picking on Spaniels ears.

Time management

Wolfie
12x10, Coloured Pencil on paper
Commission

No I haven't abandoned my blog and am still here. Life in general has simply taken over in one way or another leaving me with not enough hours in the day - again - to fit everything in.

Not having enough hours in the day is something I'm always complaining about prompting me to think more seriously about time management. As a Pay and Personnell Admin Officer in a previous life, managing my time in the office was compulsory so it shouldn't be a problem in the studio and home right? Right! Need to be positive and start as I mean to go on.

So as a start, at the end of everyday I plan to put pen to paper and list all my goals for the following day that I want to accomplish .......... must/WILL accomplish - and stick to it. If that means less time on the Internet or TV, not having elevenses or cooking the kids tea then so be it (ok, maybe not the last one).

The way I see it is that I should be having a lot more work flying off the easel than I am and doing a lot more with my business than what I'm currently doing but for some reason or other am not. I have so many things I want to do, and can do, if I just organized myself better. This should, in turn, give me more time to update my blog regularly (I'm looking at twice a week) - yet something else I keep promising to do but always put off to another day. But not anymore, here's to a more organised and focused me.