Friday, April 17, 2009

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.

6 comments:

adebanji said...

I am a great fan of all your pieces, please if I may ask, which brand of coloured pencils do you like/use most and what sort of paper do you use for your ground.

Elizabeth McCrindle said...

Beautiful as always. You've captured that eager to please look Spaniels always have plus Thistle is a nickname a lot of my internet friends know me by :))

Christine Perry | Graphite Art said...

He is looking gorgeous already. Thanks for posting the link for the new cp site! One can never have too many links ;o ) Love your work!

Laura said...

Hi Adebanji

Thank you for stopping by my blog - I love your mixed media drawings and they always inspire me to experiment more. I worked a lot like this in my college days so they take me back:)

I use quite a few brands of artists pencils mainly Derwent Artist, Derwent Colorsoft, FC Polychromos, Caran D'Ache Pablo, Caran D'Ache Luminance and Prismacolor.

The pencils I use the most would have to be Derwent Artist and FC Polychromos (although I'm finding I really like Caran D'Ache Pablo pencils these days and need to get more colours in this range)simply because they have the harder lead and keep their point longer. I find I can get a lot more detail with these pencils than ones with the softer, creamier leads.

As for my paper I always use Fabriano Artistico Hot Pressed Watercolour paper (140lb) and haven't yet come across one I like better. The main thing with this paper is that it's smooth but has enough tooth to take many layers of pencil which is really important to me. I can't recomend the paper highly enough.

Laura said...

Hi Elizabeth - thank you, this was certainly my aim and its good to know I got there:) I'm intrigued now as to why Thistle is your nickname - because you are Scottish perhaps?

Laura said...

Hi Christine and thank you:) I totally agree that one can never have to many links - just wish I had the time to follow them all:)