Three Racoons in Acrylic

This is the large (for me) acrylic that I'm working on.
It is about 8 x 16 inches on mdf that I have applied several coats of gesso tinted with acrylic to.
I haven't finished the top corner I just wanted to draw the first racoon in to give myself a reference point.

Last summer while on holiday in Canada I got lots of great reference photographs of racoons. In this one there are three sitting on a log, they couldn't have come up with a better pose.

The local joiners are willing to cut my boards for me which makes it easier to consider sizes that are not readily available. It is also much cheaper than buying prepared board and I'm finding I prefer board to canvas.

Another Tabby Cat in Coloured Pencil

SOLD

Another small tabby cat. This one is 5 x 4 coloured pencil and acrylic on stonehenge paper.
I've started a large acrylic and these small pictures give me a break from the intense concentration. I like the lighting on this one so I'm thinking of doing a larger version.

Kitten in a Pumpkin

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After painting the Osprey I decided to have a bit of fun and painted this little kitten in the pumpkin.
It's ACEO size, 2.5 x 3.5, coloured pencil and acrylic on pastel paper.

Osprey in Acrylic

Following my workshop this is pure acrylic on illustration board.

Original reference image courtesy Alan D. Wilson, Naturespicsonline.com, used with Alan's permission.

I'm now going to attempt a bigger painting on board, could it be a cat?

Puma Finished

I've finished my puma.

Following the workshop I concentrated on form and darkened the right side.
It's 10 x 8 done in watercolour.

Workshop with Terry Isaac

Demo painted by Terry Isaac

I have had a crazy few days which included a taking a workshop with Canadian Artist Terry Isaac and driving my youngest son back to London for the start of the new University year.

I first heard about the workshop in the summer of 2009 when I met Terry's wife Kathleen at the farmers market in Penticton, Canada.
While admiring Terry's work I mentioned how I would love to attend one of his workshops but living in the UK made it almost impossible.

Imagine my delight when Kathleen said he was proposing to visit the UK in 2010 and hold a couple of workshops. Even better the proposed location of one of them was Harrogate, Yorkshire, which is close to where I live.

She suggested I contact Ken Stroud at Wildscape (The Journal of Wildlife Art and Conservation) to receive updates. I already subscribed to the magazine so the rest as they say is history.

Terry is a wonderful wildlife artist, a great teacher and a really, really nice person.

What made the workshop even better was that without exception all the people were friendly, helpful and willing to share tips and ideas.

I've made a couple of friends that I'll keep in touch with and meet up with again, it's always nice to make contact with fellow artists.

I left after the three days feeling inspired and knowing what I needed to work on to hopefully take my work to the next level.

Although I didn't do any painting (except the background wash) at the workshop I have started an Osprey in acrylic which I'll share later.