Grouse Study in Mixed Media

Red Grouse Study

Mixed Media on Paper, 14 x 18 inches

Original Available, email me if interested.

I am lucky to have several areas of moorland close to home that sustain breeding populations of red grouse so that over the course of several years I have taken hundreds of reference photographs in all seasons.

I couldn't make my mind up if I wanted to do a painting or drawing so decided to go for the best of both worlds and combine the two. The main image is acrylic fading into graphite and the two small ones are graphite.

Detail from the above study.

My original idea included either one or two flying grouse but sadly I was always too slow with my camera and captured mostly tips of wings, trailing legs or no grouse at all, so a flying grouse will have to wait for another time.

As I have so many good photographs to work from I will be doing another drawing in the future, perhaps a less serious image like one taken from my reference photograph below.

Second Attempt at a Grizzly Bear

The first grizzly bear had an accident with my airbrush which decided to splutter and spit blobs of paint out. The result was a bear that looked like he had a bad case of measles.
I decided to paint him this time using acrylic on prepared mdf board.
I haven't got very far yet as I've had a busy few weeks.
My youngest son graduates tomorrow and the ceremony is in London at the Royal Albert Hall.
My solo exhibition starts on the 3rd of November and I have to deliver everything to the venue next Monday and then I'm demonstrating at Art Materials Live at the NEC for four days in November.
Plus I have to fit in some blood tests and an opticians visit in the next couple of weeks. However once I get to the middle of November I have nothing else planned for the rest of the year so should return to posting on a more regular basis.

An Acrylic Puzzle

I'm going to paint all the background on this one before I add the animal so that I don't get a halo effect.
It's 16 x 20 acrylic on board.
I prepared my own board by adding several coats of gesso and sanding between each coat. The finished surface is very smooth which is how I like it.
Once I'd finished with the gesso I painted a mid grey all over which I find better to work on than the white of the gesso.

This will be a small animal on a large background, any guesses what it might be?

Little Owl Part 2

I'm continuing to work on the owl. I tend to work on one area at a time building the depth by glazing thin layers of paint.
The great thing about using acrylics is that adjustments can be made as and when necessary. For me this removes the hesitation in getting started because I know if when I go wrong I can correct the mistake.
I try not to add any white to the colour I'm glazing with to keep it as transparent as possible. For the feathers I'm using a lot of burnt and raw umber with touches of paynes grey and alizarin to vary the colour.
I glaze over the white feathers with burnt umber then add more white etc until I'm happy with the result.

Little Owl in Acrylic

I wanted to try a small version of the Little Owl before attempting one with a full background.
This is a captive bird that I photographed at a game fair. I can see the plumage much better in this photograph than my wild owl one so decided it would be good to practice the feather structure.
It is 8 x 10 inches, acrylic on MDF.

Racoons Continued

I'm making slow progress on the three racoons, I've covered about a third of the board and worked some of that up to about 90%
I'm enjoying working from my own photograph as it brings back memories of the day we spent in Stanley Park, Vancouver in the summer. It is far easier not to slavishly follow the photograph when I can remember other details about the scene from actually having been there.
I have used reference material from other sources (always with permission) and I will continue to do so but that obviously restricts what can be done with the resulting artwork.
Most juried exhibitions and competitions now have a ruling that states entries need to be based an the artists own reference material, which is why I now have thousands of my own photographs stored on backup drives.

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.

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?

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Rough Collie Painting

We had a real health scare with Clinton last week although he is completely recovered now. It made me realise that I drew him as a puppy but I hadn't done an adult portrait of him. I felt the need to paint him once we knew he was going to be alright.

I decided to use a photograph of him looking over the fence into the garden. I have already used one of Juno from this shoot to produce

'Wait For Me' Clinton is acrylic and coloured pencil on Arches HP watercolour paper.
It makes a change to be painting a dog again, it seemed strange to be painting long fur.

Clinton is lying under the drawing table, doing his best to add touches of fur into the wet paint.

Kingfisher and Bilberries

I wanted some reference photographs of tree trunks with ivy growing up them. Whilst out tracking down suitable subjects I remembered that it was Bilberry season. In fact as I discovered I remembered a bit late. There was plenty of evidence of Bilberries having been there, but they were now obviously residing in someone else's freezer. I did find enough for a couple of pies after a lot of searching in places not designed to be searched.

I have also made progress with the Kingfisher, he has at least an undercoat all over now. I am enjoying the small paintings for a change, although I'm not sure my eyes have the same enthusiasm.

Robin Finished

I've now finished my Robin, I'm reasonably happy with it.

There is a bit more all round so I am still thinking about the crop. I also want to adjust the tones on the bird, but I'll let it rest for a couple of days and then look at it with fresh eyes.

The biggest challenge was getting the acrylic to behave itself in such a small space. I found working with a tiny brush ( a 10/0) and applying the paint in tiny drops worked best, that way I could blend the colours quite easily. I did however use tiny lines to represent the feathers.

Going Small - Miniature Robin

I'm trying to get two or three miniature paintings together to submit to an exhibition later in the year.

I've had one or two false starts and realised in the process that my eyes are are not as good for close up work as they used to be. I have an optivisor, but when I put it on my dogs disown me, sure I must be up to no good. Today they were too hot to care, I just got one or two strange looks from Clinton when he popped his head out from under my drawing table.

Fingers crossed third time lucky. This Robin is from my own reference photograph, it is 3 x 2, acrylic on Arches HP Watercolour paper.

I might decide to crop a bit tighter when I can see the whole thing.

Tomorrow Roxie is at a show but I hope to be home in time to finish my monochrome cat as for once it is fairly close to home.

Most of the other dogs have dropped their coats and I can see Roxie looking at them enviously so I expect to be having a forced showing break soon.

Monochrome Cat with a Splash

I have abandoned everything else to complete another cat.
This is mainly coloured pencil with touches of acrylic on Arches Hot Press Watercolour paper. It will be about 16 x 8 inches.
It has more colour than the ones I've done in French Grey, but I am sticking to the monochrome colour scheme.

There will be a surprise addition to the picture once the cat is finished.

Watch this space.

Continuing the Snow Leopard

I started to draw the features of the Snow Leopard and realised that:-
1. I didn't like the right ear position
2. the eyes were crooked.

Therefore I used the ear from the next photograph as the Leopard had flicked it forward, and alsoadjusted the eyes. The grid lines made this an easy task, they also enabled me to see that the nose and mouth would line up correctly.

I then painted the eyes in acrylic and started working the fur using a mixture of coloured pencil and acrylic.

It is the scan that is crooked, not my lines!