Start of a new portrait

It’s turning out to be a busy week for me away from the drawing board so I’m not getting to spend as much time as I would like, or should I say need to on my next commission. It didn’t help that I struggled for some reason to get going with this portrait and spent a lot of time going back over areas I was unhappy with. I’m never completely happy with the very early stages of a portrait anyway as it goes through the ‘ugly’ stage - I often have to remind myself that it will improve and turn out the way I want. With this one I felt I needed a lot of reminding.

Thankfully, it’s passed this stage now and I feel a lot happier with how it’s progressing – at least I’m not continually going back over areas now:)

Here are the first stages of Gypsy, a gorgeous Golden Retriever. She is the first in what will eventually be a double portrait.

Gypsy
A Work in Progress
Copyright Laura Hardie 2009

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

On the drawing board

Zara
21cm x27cm, Coloured Pencil
Copyright Laura Hardie 2009

I work from photos (as if you hadn’t guessed:)) – I have to as I've yet to come across a dog, or any animal for that matter, who will happily pose for up to 30 hours or more while I complete their portrait. But I have to admit to being very particular when it comes to choosing those that I will work from, as I’m sure those who have worked with me in the past will testify. I’m not saying I haven’t worked with bad photos because I have, many in fact when I first started out, but ultimately this shows in the finished portrait hence my ‘fussiness’ and insistence on good photos to start with.

This week I had planned to start a portrait of four Collies but on printing out the agreed reference photos I really wasn’t completely happy with two of them so decided to ask for more. I do find it hard if I continually have to ask for more photos when they’re unsuitable – I almost feel as if I’m being a pain – but it’s so important to get this stage right and hopefully the finished portrait makes all the extra effort worthwhile.

So with the Collie portrait on hold until next week I had the chance to work on my own portfolio, which I’m slowly trying to build up between commissioned pieces, but was disappointed to get next to nothing done – too much procrastinating and not enough action. I had the perfect opportunity too as my daughter was off to London on a school trip for the week giving me plenty of me time. Sadly the only thing I managed to do was to finish the above drawing of Zara. I started this back in February and you can see a couple of work in progress shots here and here.

At this stage I’m undecided what to call this piece but I do have a few ideas running round my head that I’ll no doubt spend some time pondering over.

Portrait finished

Skye
Copyright Laura Hardie 2009

I put the last finishing touches to Skye this morning and now feel I’ve reached the stage where I’ve done all I can to this portrait so I’m officially calling it finished – further to approval of course.

Despite my reservations with the choice of reference photos for both dogs – there were some discussions early on and they were not the ones I would have personally chosen - I think they work well together. Maybe I should point out that I am terribly fussy when it comes to reference photos:)

And not forgetting the finished portrait showing both dogs together.

Keira and Skye
16x12 Coloured Pencil on paper
Copyright Laura Hardie 2009

Slowly moving on

I’m still working away on the double portrait of Skye and Keira which, as seems to be the norm these days, is taking longer to finish than I originally planned. I have now made a start on Skye as you can see in the following stages.

A Work in Progress
Copyright Laura Hardie 2009

Another couple of days should finally see this one complete.

Coloured Pencil Tutor required

Keira
A Work in Progress
Copyright Laura Hardie 2009

I’ve not been feeling too good these past few days so my pencils have been lying dormant gathering dust while I’ve been moping around feeling sorry for myself. I did manage to finish Keira before all this however, which I’m pleased about, but will need to play catch up for the rest of the week to get this portrait finished in time.

Now for something a little bit different and exciting, at least for my blog anyway. Melanie Phillips who currently tutors with the London Art College made me aware of a vacancy they currently have there and I would like to do my bit and hopefully bring this to the attention of any coloured pencil artists out there. The London Art College specialises in providing tuition by distance learning art courses and are currently looking for a tutor for their Coloured Pencil Course. The details are as follows…

Tutor Required for London Art College Distance Learning Course

There is a vacancy for a distance Learning Course Tutor for the Coloured Pencil Certificate Course. This is a unique opportunity to work with students from the comfort of your own home or studio. The successful applicant will eventually be able to put their mark on the course and make it their own. The post requires a few hours per week in tutoring, which will start gradually as you take over the new enrolees. The tutor will be required to have some general computer skills. Previous experience in tutoring may help but it is not necessary.

This is open to UK applicants only.

Application - Stage 1
If you are interested in taking over the tutoring post for the coloured pencil course please entitle your email 'CP Course tutor vacancy' with the following.....
Please include a few high res examples of your coloured pencil artwork,
A brief background of your experiences / education /age range
Tutoring experiences if any,
Whether you have a full / part time job or work as an artist full / part time.
Please email this to Melanie Phillips - petportraitartist@gmail.com

Application - Stage 2
In the second stage of the application, the successful applicants will be asked to produce a sample critique. An excerpt of a previous students critique will be given to each applicant to show what we are looking for. You will be given three pieces of artwork to critique and this can be then emailed along with your feedback, length of time the critique took and any other comments you may have.

Good Luck!

For further information, or to submit an application please email Melanie Phillips - petportraitartist@gmail.com

It’s a great opportunity I’m sure you’ll agree and I personally wish all the best to those who apply.

Portrait update

Keira
A Work in Progress
Copyright Laura Hardie 2009

A couple more stages showing Keira coming together. I should have her finished over the weekend and then it’s onto her companion Skye, the Springer Spaniel.

Start of a new portrait

Keira
A Work in Progress
Copyright Laura Hardie 2009

My next portrait is of two dogs – a Springer Spaniel and a crossbreed, although we’re not sure what cross exactly. Her owners affectionately refer to her as a ‘Heinz 57’ and have to admit that was a new one to me.

I’ve made a start on Keira (the Heinz 57) simply because she is on the left of the composition and I like to work left to right. This way I can avoid ‘smudging’ my work. At this stage I’m simply laying down my base colours and building up my layers to create depth, working light to dark. The ear is pretty much finished and I’m now jumping between the eyes, nose and head working a little bit here and a little bit there until it all comes together. Still a way to go before that happens though.

Springer Spaniel finished and Poll results

Thistle
12x10 Coloured Pencil on paper
Copyright Laura Hardie 2009

While adding the final touches to Thistle I suddenly remembered about the poll I ran back in March and how I’d totally forgotten to post the results of this on my blog - oops. I do have a terrible memory which only seems to get worse it seems.

Just to refresh your memory (and to update any new readers who haven’t a clue what I’m on about) I was becoming increasingly unhappy with the results I was getting when scanning my drawings, especially those completed using graphite pencil, and wanted to do something about it. I was trying to find the best way to get images of my artwork and was interested to find out what other artists thought and what their preferred method was. See my original post here.

While I’m not sure word for word what my original question was, having noted only the results when the poll closed (a lesson learnt here to write the question down as well), I do know I was asking how you obtained a good image of your art work. Here are the results and I‘d like to say a huge thank you to all those who participated. From the 23 votes recorded…..

• 11 (47%) use a scanner.
• 9 (39%) photograph their drawings/paintings indoors using natural lighting.
• 4 (17%) photograph their drawings/paintings outside.
• 2 (8%) photograph their drawings/paintings indoors using special lighting.
• 2 (8%) have their artwork professionally scanned.
• 1 (4%) has their work professionally photographed.

Overall, photographing artwork whether indoors or outdoors, with or without special lighting turned out to be the most popular method, which did surprise me a little – I assumed that most artists scanned their work. Saying this scanning did come a close second.

I do believe however that whatever method is used that the majority of work happens post scan or photograph in Photoshop. Being able to correct and ‘fine tune' images using this software is great and only wish I knew more about it – or at least lived with someone who does.

I’ve experimented a bit with photographing my drawings and each time return to my scanner as I personally feel I get a better result this way. And now, thanks to a fellow artist, that I know how to get a white background using Photoshop without affecting my drawings I’m going to stick to this method for now.

Springer Spaniel update

Thistle
A Work in Progress
Copyright Laura Hardie 2009

The school holidays are now over so hopefully I can spend more time on my drawings. Spent a good part of yesterday just working on Thistle’s ear and only managed to complete half of it which really puts into perspective how slow working with coloured pencils can actually be.

Start of a new portrait

Things have slowed down recently behind the drawing board as I’m just not putting in the hours that I should be just now with the result that everything is taking that bit longer to complete. The school holidays haven’t helped as I never seem to get much done during them anyway, but mainly it’s just a simple case of life getting in the way……… again. Hopefully next week things will be back to normal and I’ll be managing my time better.

I’ve made a start on my next portrait, which happens to be a beautiful Springer Spaniel called Thistle. Here are the first couple of stages.

I was made aware of a new website this week called Colored Pencil Central which you might find interesting, especially if you love coloured pencils like I do. Set up by Ann Kullberg, it is basically a directory of coloured pencil websites, blogs, videos, workshops, etc and is well worth a visit. No doubt I’ll spend many an hour admiring the work of other artists and more blogs will be added to my favourites.

Chocolate Lab finished

Milly
16X12 Coloured Pencil
Copyright Laura Hardie 2009

I actually managed to finish Milly on time but have been sitting on it (not literally of course) for the last couple of days to see if there were any areas jumped out at me in need of attention before calling it done. I am happy to say however that she has now passed my ‘scrutinization’ period and is ready for approval.

On the home stretch

Milly
Work in Progress
Copyright Laura Hardie 2009

Slowly (is there any other way with coloured pencils?) but surely Milly is coming together. This has been one of those portraits where I was forever going back to bits I’d previously called finished or starting one area and deciding I wanted to do another, then another all before any were finished. Probably wouldn’t look good if doing a demo but the end results are the same and that’s what matters at the end of the day.