Are Ewe ready?

Oh no! the 'ewe' thing just invites too many puns, doesn't it?

Well, no matter, I haven't spent all this time concocting new ones - I have been doing some work on the drawing as well. I have finally finished it!

Are Ewe looking at me?

Sorry that is a terrible pun. My brain is frying: it is approaching Christmas, after all. And how many presents have I purchased? None!!! I thought I could make presents for people - but what do I do? I don't have time to do drawings... I'm quite good at making curries, but I don't think they wrap and store well under the tree.... Oh, it's torture. I have so far successfully buried my head in the proverbial sand, but will have to bite the bullet sooner or later!

Anyway, here's my current Christmas deadline commission, a sheep (a charolais). My first sheep. I was lucky to have a client who got me many lovely photos of this sheep from all angles - I had trouble choosing the best shot for a portrait! I think this one is nice and there is great contrast of light in it, which makes for a nice dramatic portrait. I have probably spent somewhere in the region of 15 hours so far on this....

I should have done this a couple of weeks ago, but hey-ho, better late than never. Here is the finished drawing. Although what you can't see here in this photo of the drawing is that I did add a subtle shadow beneath each dog to help ground them (thanks fellow Artpapians!). I was in a hurry to get the finished piece to the customer and didn't get a chance to take a photograph of the finished piece.
I found once I had drawn in the second dog, which is much darker, the golden retriever required some further darkening to help balance out the toning in the overall piece (I didn't want her to fade into insignificance!).
Another satisfied customer!

Latest Commission

This is a really nice job: I went out and took photos of Sam and Lucy having a nice walk on the North Downs, and have made a nice composition out of a particularly nice shot where they are both poised expectantly waiting for the stick to be thrown again!

What you can see here is the work I have done so far on Lucy, the Golden Retriever. I haven't finished her yet, and need to add more darks to create more depth etc. This is from a photograph, hence the grey looking paper.

What's going on?

Where have I been? What have I been doing? I mean, it doesn't seem like I've been putting much effort in on the pencil front, does it? Well, I have quietly and slowly been making progress on my commission work. I admit that I have been slacking on the blog and website updates....

It's difficult working full time and trying to find the energy/patience to sit down at a drawing table, no matter how much you want to: how much it plays on your conscience when you're not doing it. I have a pretty busy time outside of work - I'm rehearsing for our next musical "The King and I" - I'm playing Tuptim, which is a big singing role for me, so I've also been having singing lessons and spend 40mins+ each evening practising singing. I've also been playing badminton 2-3 times a week to try and keep in shape... it all takes its toll on the drawing, I'm afraid.

Anyway, below you can see some examples of my latest work: the first is Purdy, a very handsome pointer. This was commissioned by a work colleague, who was very pleased with her portrait....


This next drawing is another commission of a Gibbon - a gift for his keeper.

neglect

Maybe it is about time I updated my neglected blog. I thought I would share some of the things I have been doing on my computer at work during my lunchtimes....

All these images have used photos as their basis, then I have coloured or re-composited them using Illustrator. The Great Tit below is currently my desktop - as spring is here! The tree silhouettes were a bookcover I designed for my sister as a Christmas pressie: they were my winter desktop!

More experiments

This time last year, I was harping on about how I wanted to experiment more in different media, like pastel, acrylic etc... I seem to be gravitating towards the computer (I think this is helped by my new employer having furnished me with a gorgeous mac, wacom tablet and the Adobe Suite - which I'm always desperate to upskill in).

Here's a little experiment I carried out yesterday, inspired whilst flicking through my 'Computer Arts' magazine... Again, it's a cat based piece of work: I really must shake off the shackles of my pet related artistry and start to explore other stuff! I have made a resolution to myself to sketch more, as I'm so bad at that. I'm hoping that will also help provide me with fresh inspiration... you never know?!

I sketched all the composite parts of my cat, Rufus on paper, scanned it onto the computer and then cut out the shapes and put them on separate layers, so I could move them around and position them as I wanted. I then added a drop shadow to each layer and a background colour to the bottom layer. This gives quite a realistic effect of the shapes having been cut out and glued to the paper - especially when the image is printed!