Tree Sparrow

We're off to Scotland this morning to welcome in 2009, hopefully I'll get some sketching done and have some new photographs to share.

I'm taking my laptop and mobile internet connection so I might post before 2009, then again I might not. If not I wish you all a Happy New Year .

I'll leave you with a Tree Sparrow I photographed on Saturday at Mere Sands Wood.

Rough Collie in Pastel

Another of my Commissions, Bonnie the Rough Collie in pastel.

This was another one I enjoyed because the owner supplied me with some really nice photographs to choose from.

I picked this one which to me had so much life.

The picture was 16 x 20 on colourfix.

Jack Russell in Coloured Pencil and a Treecreeper

Now that Christmas Day is over I can share some of my commission work.

This Jack Russell was a pleasure to draw she had such a sweet little face. Plus I took the photographs which made it easier as I'd seen her personality.

The owner asked that I use French Grey coloured pencil with colour for the eyes, the same technique I've used for cats.

It's on Arches hot press watercolour paper.

My bird of the day is this Treecreeper which was attracted to the fat we've rubbed in the bark of one of the Silver Birches.

It's not the sharpest of photographs but I was so excited my hands were shaking. This is not a common visitor to our garden.

Happy Holidays and a Chaffinch

I bought a Canon lens off eBay and I'm delighted with it. It's a Canon 4oo 5.6 L, really lightweight and easy to use.

Even though the light was awful I managed to take a few reasonable shots today, this is one of the better ones, a Chaffinch.

We're spending the New Year in Scotland so fingers crossed for good light and plenty of birds of prey.

For all who celebrate Christmas I hope you have a very Merry one, for all who don't I wish you Happy Holidays.

I'll be back with some artwork later in the week.

A Photoshop Tip

At last the Christmas Commissions are finished, the last one is being collected tomorrow. I'm now looking forward to getting my entries for a couple of competitions ready.

Today's photograph is a stunning Asian cat.

I thought I'd share a photoshop tip for sharpening an image without altering colour.

Open image

Create a new background layer

In the layer palette select luminosity (the colour and saturation in the lower layer will be retained)

In the filter menu select unsharp mask and adjust the sliders until you like the result

Flatten image,

I have found this works better than applying unsharp mask direct to the image.

More on Taking your own Photographs

Todays bird is a Shelduck chick, taken back in June, the same one that I've started painting in a different pose.
I thought it would be useful to let you in on a few of my tricks for taking photographs of garden birds.

I place feeders in locations surrounded by vegetation that the bird can perch on, as my aim is to avoid photographing on the feeder whenever possible. I want natural looking shots to use as reference material for future paintings. I do however try to ensure that they are never placed where cats can sneak up on the birds.

Once I've placed the feeder I try not to move it as the birds seem happier to visit familiar objects. I also keep them filled as I've found birds continue to visit as long as food is available.

I rub cheese and fat into the tree trunks as I've found this attracts Woodpeckers, and keeps them reasonably still while they peck at it.

I always provide water, Blackbirds in particular love to splash about in it.

If I had to give one tip to increase the chance of successfully photographing garden birds, it would be learn about their behaviour.

I've found that most species tend to have fairly predictable visiting patterns.
Long Tailed Tits tend to visit early and late afternoon, passing through quickly, they never stay longer than a few minutes.
The Woodpecker visits early afternoon and spends several minutes on one particular tree.
The Jay and Sparrowhawk visit early morning, the Jay tends to be on the ground but is very shy and hard to photograph. If the Sparrowhawk has caught a bird you can approach quite close while it's feeding, otherwise it just shoots through the garden.
The Blue, Great and Coal Tits are about all day often taking a seed or nut and perching on a branch to eat it.
So on and so on.

Oh and one other thing, you need an endless amount of patience and good humour when several Collies decide to tell you all about the one you're trying to sneak up on.

Another Bird

Still no artwork but I am continuing to print out my photographs on a daily basis.

Another bird from my garden, this time a Blue Tit.

Standing Room Only

I went to visit the RSPB Reserve at Leighton Moss today, visiting Heysham and Hess Bank to look at the waders on the way.

I'm going to call this one "Standing Room Only".

Yesterday I printed a photograph of a Shelduck chick which I have started to paint in acrylic.

10 x 8 on Arches, started laying in a base coat of indigo with a touch of sepia.

Starling Photograph

I photographed this Starling in my garden, I couldn't resist the beautiful colours in the plumage.

Not the most exciting of this mornings birds but the most eye catching.

Squirrel Photograph

Today's photograph is a Squirrel that I took in Yellowstone National Park in August.
I hope to be back to sharing my artwork by the end of the week.

Least Chipmunk Photograph

Todays photograph is a Least Chipmunk (if anyone thinks it is a different species please let me know as I am not 100% certain) that I photographed in South Dakota in the Summer. I'm torn between painting a miniature of him or doing a larger work with a background.

I'm almost finished with my Christmas Commissions and am longing to paint something for me.

Creating a Photographic Record

I've been thinking about a daily project for 2009. I am realistic enough to know that attempting a daily drawing or painting is not going to happen.

I have also been thinking about how little my photographs actually get looked at because they are files stored on a hard drive.


So each day until the end of 2009 I am going to try to print one of my photographs. I'm just going to do a small version, probably around 4 x6, each one will be a subject I intend to paint.


I've bought some blank 8 x 5 cards and I will stick the photograph to the card. I will then record details about the photograph and which folder it is stored in on my hard drive. The back of the card will be used for thumbnail's, tiny sketches etc. Once the card is full I will laminate it to help preserve the information.


As often as possible I will use a photograph taken on that day, so for today it is a Robin on the garden fence.


I will then be able to share my photographs with people who don't have access to a computer.

Pintail Photograph

I'm still working at my Commissions which I can't show until after Christmas. I've aslo been struggling getting to and from work in the icy conditions. The roads have been sheets of ice because the snow froze during Tuesday.

However the rain has returned so hopefully it will wash away the snow, fingers crossed it doesn't freeze.

I'll post another of my Martin Mere photographs, this time a Pintail with a great reflection. I can't wait to get started on my bird studies.

I've also purchased two new Derwent Onyx pencils.

This is what Derwent says about them:-

Derwent ONYX - Darker than a 9B Our new Derwent Onyx pencil is made from smooth dark graphite and allows you to instantly create dense rich jet-black tones, even darker than a Graphic 9B. Its 4mm wide core has a non-crumbly texture which means it will sharpen and hold a fine point for longer making it ideal for hatching. And, it will smudge allowing you to blend it with your finger tip or a Tortillon.

I haven't had a go with them yet but will do over the next couple of days.

North West Bird Watching Festival

I took time out from painting today to visit the North West Bird Watching Festival at Martin Mere.

The Reserve opened early this weekend and I was there by just after 9.00am. The weather was freezing, around -2 degrees, but lovely and sunny. I took lots of photographs of the frost edging everything in white. I also took lots of swans, geese and ducks with stunning reflections. My favourite photograph for today however is this little Goldcrest. I had to wait quite a long time to get this shot by which time my hands were so cold I had difficulty operating the camera.

After taking the photograph I had to go inside for reviving coffee and a browse around all the goodies on sale.
I took out a subscription to Birds Illustrated which I've been meaning to do for quite a long time. It is a subscription only magazine and has articles of bird art/artists in every issue. I got 4 free copies with my subscription, so I'm going to go and get another coffee and settle down for a long read.

Red Deer in Mixed Media

I want some examples of British wildlife for my portfolio so I pulled this Red Deer Stag from the WIP file.

I didn't get much done as I'm in the middle of a large pastel commission, but I did paint the sky.

This is an old Stag that I photographed in Scotland last New Years Day. His whole attitude was one of patient endurance. I wonder if he made it through the winter.

Watercolour Cat

I can't show any of the commissions I'm working on until after Christmas as they are all surprises for the owners.

I have however done a little bit more work on my watercolour cat.

Snow Leopard Finished

I worked on this all day yesterday and got him finished. Hopefully he will be auctioned on behalf of the Snow Leopard Trust, more details in a couple of days.

I know the paw is slightly foreshortened, but I didn't want to change it, as it gave the effect I was looking for. These magnificent animals have such huge paws, an adaptation for their natural habitat.

Now back to my Christmas commissions.

The Supreme Cat Show Experience

We had to get up at 4.00am to be sure of arriving at the NEC in time to set up. Only the younger dogs bothered moving at that time in the morning and even they only went out briefly before going back to sleep.
The only possible benefit I could find in leaving my warm bed at such an hour, was the almost traffic free M1.

Sales were almost non existent in the morning so I wandered about taking photographs. Thank you to all the owners who got their cats out of their pens for me to get up close and personal with.
I did meet a lovely lady who lives close to my home and has invited me to go and photograph all her cats in their own surroundings. I will be arranging that visit over the next couple of weeks and can't wait for the chance to add some different breeds to my portfolio.
Around lunch time the sales started and I ended up taking more than last year. Card sales were down but print sales were definitely up.
I think my new display stand helped as customers could pick the prints up for a closer look.
I had a new range of smaller, less expensive prints available but it was the larger ones that sold.

The highlight of the day came when the owner of the cat I'm in the middle of painting recognised it was her cat immediately, so did several family members and friends, including a little boy. This wasn't a commission, I had just been allowed to use the photograph. However the owner liked the painting so much she is going to buy it when finished.

I had been wondering if I should book a stand next year, but after having a fabulous afternoon, all being well in 2009 I will be back.
Now back to the Snow Leopard, I've got an extension to the deadline until this afternoon!

Snow Leopard at the Supreme Cat Show

Well only this one, at least I hope so.

In order to meet my deadline I'm going to take this to the Supreme Cat Show which is being held at the NEC tomorrow. I can work on him in between running my stand and walking round to look at all the fabulous felines who will be on show.

It will be a very early start as I need to be there for round about 7.00am to set up my stand, so I will not get a lot more done today. I'm going to have a dress rehersal later as I have bought a new display stand and had a new sign printed.

Snow Leopard in Coloured Pencil

I realised that I was not going to finish the large Snow Leopard painting in time for the weekend, which is my deadline. I've started another one which is smaller and on blue colourfix which I find slightly faster to work on.

It will be about 14 x 12 depending how much of his body I draw.

Demonstrating for the UKCPS at Art Materials Live

I spent Thursday and Saturday helping the UKCPS with their stand at the Art Materials Live show which is held at the NEC. I was demonstrating the use of coloured pencils on various surfaces.
I was joined by several other demonstrators all working with coloured pencil but producing very different effects. I have to mention both Peter Woof and Suzy Herbert as I spent more time with them , I absolutely loved the pieces they were working on.
I think the demonstrating role was far easier than running the workshop, the members there worked non stop helping people have a go using coloured pencils. Hopefully those people will go on to become members of the UKCPS and create art using coloured pencils.
Once again I lost count of the number of people who were astonished at the effects you can achieve with a "crayon"
A special mention for Rachel who I never saw stop throughout the whole time I was there, and she was attending for the whole four days.
Hello to all the people who stopped to talk to me, I really enjoyed meeting you all.
Thursday was a major disaster for me as my husband managed to spill a full cup of coffee over the commission I was working on. Not only did the pristine white background suffer, so did my legs, feet and bag. I'd spent around 10 hours on the work up to the coffee incident so I was ever so slightly upset. However my husband was so sorry that he bought me the entire set of Luminance pencils so I recovered a little after that.

I thought that on the whole there were slightly less people visiting than last year which some of the traders agreed with. However they felt that individuals were spending more per head than last year so didn't think takings would be down.
I hope to be helping again next year as I really enjoy it.

Hitting or Missing Deadlines

Next year I want to make sure that I meet all my deadlines, or make a conscious decision not to enter exhibitions/competitions. Although I'm reasonably well organized I did end up missing one or two things I'd wanted to try.

So I've bought an academic planner that started in September and runs all through 2009. I've entered all the dates that I already know. I've split them into deadlines for sending images for catalogues and absolute final deadlines. I've also entered closing dates for dog shows if I know them. It's amazing how many dates are already filled. Now I just need to remember where I've put the planner.

I need to finish my Snow Leopard so I got it out of my portfolio and painted a background in acrylic. This is quite large for me around 24 x 20 on heavyweight Arches Hot Press paper.

The cat on pastelbord is half finished probably to the point I want to leave it for working on at the NEC.

Maine Coon Cat on Pastelbord

I've had to put everything to one side to try to paint a couple of new breeds for the Supreme.

This is the first, a Maine Coon cat who is an Imperial Grand Premier. I met him walking round a show in his harness looking down his nose at the other cats as he strolled by their pens.


He is a stunning cat and I hope I can do him justice.

I wanted to use pastelbord so that I can take it to the NEC next week. Last year people seemed interested in using coloured pencil on board.

The background is done in neocolor and needs a little more work to smooth it out.

Size 12 x 16 and I'm using the sand coloured Ampersand Pastelbord.

More Watercolour Cat

I've been carrying on with my watercolour cat, more layers to do but I can see where I'm going now.
I'm also trying to do a couple more cat breeds to offer as prints at the Supreme Cat Show, time is running out though.
I will be at the NEC on the 13th and 15th demonstrating for the UK Coloured Pencil Society and then back there on the 22nd for the Supreme. If you are visiting either event come and say hello.

Coloured Pencil cat and Birds

I've decided to try to exhibit more often next year and a couple of places I'm looking at would require more bird art.

So yesterday we went to Martin Mere which is about an hours drive from us. It is run by the Wildfowl and Wetlands Trust and is a fantastic place to visit. At this time of year it provides a roost for thousands of geese and swans. Yesterday there were around 10,000 Pink Footed Geese arriving to roost from early afternoon.

I got some nice photographs of various species of ducks, geese and swans with beautiful reflections as the sun was quite bright.

We also watched several stoats darting about in the grass, but they were far too fast for my photography skills.

At home I am lucky enough to have quite a few different species visit my feeders. This afternoon however was exceptional. I was trying to get some shots of a flock of Goldfinch which visit every day when I spotted a Goldcrest on the waterfall right in front of the window. As it flew away my husband spotted a Treecreeper on one of the Silver Birch Trees. Five minutes after that flew away we got a Great Spotted Woodpecker on the nuts.

I've seen a handful of Goldcrests in the garden over the 20 years we've lived here but it was only the third time I've seen a Treecreeper actually in the garden. The Woodpecker used to be a regular visitor but I hadn't seen it for a couple of years.

The next time I'm at home all day I'm going to set my camera up on the tripod which will help with the poor light later in the day.

Moving from birds to cats. This is the study I did for the watercolour cat I'm painting, 2.5 x 3.5, coloured pencil on Arches Hot Press.

Click here to bid.

Cat in Watercolour

This is actually the second attempt, the first is in the reject file.

I changed my way of working to lay down some fur strokes then cover with a wash of a warm grey, add some more darks and then do another wash.

I am using acrylic artists ink for the black because I can then soften it with coloured pencil.

I reserved the paper with white pencil, I used a wax based pencil as it will be easier to remove when I want to reveal the paper, there will be a lot of finger crossing at that stage. Of course it would have been easier to use masking fluid but mine is several years old and looked like it could have got out the bottle itself.

I have done about 3 layers up to now, there is more cat but I wanted to see if i could make it work before I got too ambitious.

I do think watercolour is easier to work with in small areas as it doesn't dry as quickly, but it remains to be seen which I will end up using for larger works.

Watercolour fruit and Dog Shows

I was working away for a couple of days last week so didn't get any time for art.

Yesterday we were showing Roxie and Juno at Midland Counties Championship Show.
It was a beautiful morning, so even though the show was inside I took lots of photographs of them in the sun.

They are both are in the middle of growing their new coats.

Virtual Sketch for October

I have been wanting to try watercolour paint for my miniatures and also try my hand at some botanical art. Imagine my delight when I saw the wonderful photograph posted for the October Virtual Sketch Date.

I tried one pear in watercolour, turned another one round and finished it in graphite. I can see plenty of things that need refining, but I will be using watercolour again. In fact I've started a watercolour cat, more of that in the next post.

Wolf Finished, Snow Leopard Started

The wolf is finished apart from a few tweaks.
I've started a Snow Leopard which I am going to donate to the Snow Leopard Trust when it's finished.

http://www.snowleopard.org/partners/artists

I am using the same Colourfix paper in Blue Haze and the same technique of mixing acrylic and coloured pencils.

Wolf Continued

I'm almost there with the wolf. His bottom jaw needs to be altered at the left side (his right) and I need to finish his fur.

The squirrels are back so the dogs have resumed their hobby of squirrel watching, unfortunately they've forgotten that it's a quiet hobby. The first one to catch sight of a squirrel barks to tell the second , who then barks to tell the third and so on. The squirrels don't worry at all, in fact I'm waiting for them to start barking back.

The Royal Society of Miniature Painters, Sculpters and Gravers Exhibition

Yesterday I attended the Private View of The Royal Society of Miniature Painters, Sculpters and Gravers 2008 annual exhibition at the Mall Galleries in London.

Following an awful train journey I met up with Katherine Tyrrell and Tracy Hall at the Mall Galleries to look round the exhibition.

Katherine has written a comprehensive post on the Exhibition on her Making a Mark blog and Tracy was awarded the Gold Memorial Bowl which is the most prestigious prize offered, so you can see I was in good company.

I am a huge fan of Tracy's work and it was lovely to see it in real life.

The standard of work exhibited was uniformly high, I was amazed at the detail some of the artists had achieved.

The Private View was crowded and the red dots marking sales were springing up all over. Miniature Art is obviously very popular.

Katherine then took us to the National Dining Rooms were we enjoyed a delicious three course lunch.

Returning to the Mall Galleries we attended the presentation of awards.

I liked a great deal of the work exhibited, but apart from Tracy's, the set of work that made the most impression on me was painted by Rosalind Pierson RMS HS[Co-founder] MAA

Her tiny watercolour landscapes are absolutely exquisite.

I came away from the exhibition inspired and determined to carry on painting miniatures.

Read Katherine's blog for more information, photographs and details of all the award winners.

I have continued with the wolf although the light was poor today to get an accurate photograph.

Mixed Media Wolf- part 3

I've continued to work on my wolf this week, adding more acrylic layers and more coloured pencil.

I'm still reasonably happy with him although I can see things I wish I'd done differently.

Wolf - continued

It has rained and rained and rained today. The ponds are overflowing and the fish are probably swimming round the flowerbeds, unfortunately it's now too dark to see.

I have stayed inside and carried on with my wolf.

Wolf in acrylic and coloured pencil

I have a couple of things that I need to do this month, one is finish my snow leopard the other is paint a wolf. I will finish my ground squirrel, hopefully over the weekend.


I've made a start on a portrait of a wolf, it is my usual mixed media technique in acrylic and coloured pencil, approximately 16 x 12 on blue colourfix paper.
I think I might have drawn the nose a bit too straight, I'll alter it when I get more fur in if necessary.

Ground Squirrel Demonstration - Part 4

I've added several more layers to the top stripe and am happy that it now looks to have quite a lot of depth. I've left the bottom purely coloured pencil so hopefully you can see the difference. I've also started adding layers of acrylic to his head, the top part is finished as I don't think I will improve it by adding any more paint. I do find it difficult sometimes to know when to stop before I create mud.
At this stage he does look quite flat so I'll do some work on giving him some shape next.

Mixed Media Cat on Pastelbord

I put the pastels away again, I don't seem to enjoy them at the moment even though I used to use them almost 100% of the time.

I went back to my coloured pencil, neocolor and acrylic on pastelbord.

The cat is the same Norwegian Forest, owned by our friends John and Caroline Tipper.

The size is the same 7 x 5, the background is neocolor with coloured pencil on top, then brushed in using a hard stencil brush.

When is Lilac known as Lavender?

When it is a coat colour in a cat.

In order to accurately portray the coat colours in the various breeds of cats I want to paint I have been looking at how colour is inherited. I studied genetics as part of my degree in Zoology so can understand the theory. So far so good with colour, but then I moved on to the inheritance of coat patterns, at that point my brain gave up for the day.

My main problem came when I realised that the same genetic colour can have different names depending on both the breed of cat and the breed association.

So lilac can become lavender, tortoiseshell and white can become calico, black can be ebony etc.

When I then started thinking about spotted, tipped, pointed etc, not to mention ticked, mitted and agouiti I decided much more research will be needed.

The one thing I do know is that all cats inherit some form of the tabby gene so perhaps I should stick to tabbies, now would that be mackerel or classic.

I will continue to share my findings as I go along.

Just for a change I dug my pastels out today.

Ground Squirrel Demonstration - Part 3

I haven't done very much over the last couple of days, but hopefully enough for you to see the difference between the area where I've added acrylic and the area of pure coloured pencil.
I have added a wash of raw umber over the two darker stripes. Then I've painted fur in a dirty white (I don't clean my brush after adding the raw umber) on the lighter stripe and a mix of raw umber and paynes grey on the darker. The bottom of both stripes is pure CP. I've also added some washes of acrylic to the head.

I add the acrylic to give more depth and more punch, the washes add the depth and the individual strokes the punch. I then repeat using alternate layers of coloured pencil and acrylic until I'm happy with the result.

I have received confirmation that I have been allocated space at the Supreme Cat Show so for the next few weeks I am aiming to paint a few more breeds. I just have to find the cats to photograph now! Amazingly they don't tend to pose for me when I'm walking the dogs.

Ground Squirrel Demonstration - Part 2

I'm including a photo of my drafting table so you can see how I work.I usually have the image showing on my laptop which I place at the top left but I was using it for something else this morning.

At the right you can just see my home made Mahl Stick which I rest my hand on to stop the acid from my hand spoiling my acid free paper. Basically it's a piece of foam wrapped around each end of a piece of garden cane.

I always have my Gray Scale and Value Finder close, even if I'm using colour.

Also at the right is a scrap of Arches paper which I use throughout to test colours, fur patterns etc.

I've drawn my Squirrel on the same paper as the graphite version, Arches Hot Press and I will use my drawing rather than the photograph to check values.

This first image is all coloured pencil, finding values and fur direction and laying down a base.

Here I'm starting adding acrylic to the head but the rest is pure coloured pencil.

On the last one I'm working in both acrylic and coloured pencil, going backwards and forwards until I achieve the depth I want.

Later I'll post a close up of the fur.

Ground Squirrel Demonstration - The Drawing

I've chosen a Ground Squirrel to demonstrate how I use mixed media.

I took the photograph half way up Pikes Peak in Colorado, there were several Ground Squirrels and Chipmunks running around the car park. This one kept popping out of his burrow then darting back inside.

Stage 1 is the graphite drawing, approximately 7 x 8 on Arches Hot Press. I'm using the drawing to work out any problems, both with the detail and with the lighting.

Hopefully I will finish the drawing tomorrow and start on the painting. I'll include more steps to show how I work.

Brushes for Miniature Painting

Due to several requests I'm preparing a small demo to show how I combine acrylic and coloured pencil. I'll post it sometime over the next few days.


The other request I've had is to show what my small brushes look like. So I've taken a photograph of my favourites together with the painting. I've also included a 1 Cent to show the scale (similar in size to a UK 1pence)
From the left are a 7/0, 5/0, 2/0 and 2 Round, then a 1 rigger, followed by a 0 Filbert. I use the rigger if I want a long stroke because the small brushes obviously hold very little paint, and the filbert on the background.
I can't find my 10/0 despite extensive searching so I'll have to order another. I think the fairies have taken it, it will be about the right size for them to use.
A good supplier of all things for miniature paintings is Polymers Plus

Gouache or Acrylic?

I've decided that acrylic is not giving me the results I'm looking for when painting Miniatures. I am struggling with the speed at which it dries and am also finding the colours look a little bit bright.

Because I'm using tiny brushes with tiny amounts of paint it is dry almost as soon as it hits the surface. This has been causing me growing frustration, so I decided to start again.

I decided to use gouache because it will work if I want to add coloured pencil. I also changed the polymin for Arches Hot Press paper.

So far I am finding this much easier, of course I might have changed my mind by tomorrow.

Supreme Cat Show

Like countless other people I have taken a huge financial hit over the last few months with a nosedive over the last two days. I have not found it easy to snap out of my gloom this time and that has carried through into my artwork. Yesterday I found fault with everything I was doing, so decided the wisest move was to do something different before I ripped everything up.

I caught up on some paperwork which included sending off my application to have a stand at this years GCCF Supreme Cat Show.

I thoroughly enjoyed myself last year meeting all those beautiful cats, so I'm looking forward to this year.

The show is held on the 22/11/2008 at the NEC and if you like cats well worth a visit.