Hare Today Gone Tomorrow

'Watching'

Pastel on Velour Paper

I finally finished the hare I'd been working on at Harrogate Spring Flower Show and finalised the limited edition prints.

While working on this image I frequently thought about my dad because one of his little saying was 'hare today, gone tomorrow'. Although he's been dead for over eighteen years I can still hear him saying it.

Having seen the media footage of the aftermath of the Oklahoma hurricane it suddenly struck me how terribly apt the saying was, we are indeed here today and gone tomorrow. It  made me realise just how important it is to live for today, appreciate what I have and not long for tomorrow.

Limited edition giclee prints of 'Watching' are available direct from me, I will update my website later today.
Edition limited to 350, produced on 100% cotton fine art paper.
Image size approximately 13.5 x 9.5 inches, the print is mounted/matted in white, mounted/matted size 16 x 20.

** Now available direct from my website**

If you'd like any further information please email me: gayle.mason@gmail.com

Slow Progress on the Foxes

Progress has been slow on the foxes because I've spent time doing things with the family over the Christmas period.
I'm going to Scotland for a few days from tomorrow but I intend to finish all the pieces I've started before the end of January. Expect to see the bear, foxes, pheasants and a leopard all of which are in varying stages of completion.

I'm deciding what my artistic aims are for 2013 so that will be my first post of the new year.

Back to the Tiger

For some reason I can't get the colour right in this photograph, it is slightly too red, I'll have another go in photoshop later.
I decided it was time to work on the pastel tiger again even working on the missing bit on his nose.
I really want to get this finished and framed as pastel is not the best medium to have unframed with several dogs playing chase round the easel legs several times a day.

Amur Tiger - Part 2

I'm slowly but surely working on my second Amur tiger. There isn't quite so much contrast in real life but at least you can see the progress.
I can't quite work out the fur direction/light on his nose so it's incomplete until inspiration strikes, or I run out of other areas to work on!

Another Amur ( Siberian) Tiger in Pastel

I've started another pastel of an Amur Tiger.
I took the photograph earlier this year at the Highland Wildlife Park in Scotland.
I'm using a mixture of soft pastels and pastel pencils on Fisher paper, the size is approximately 24 x 20 inches.
I'm beginning to dislike the CarbOthello pencils made by Stabilo because I'm having real difficulty sharpening them. No matter how carefully I handle them some of the colours break really easily. White is the main culprit followed by the cream colour which is a shame as I do like the way they work with the Fisher paper.
As far as sharpening is concerned I'm finding the Pitt pastel pencils far easier to work with.

Pastel Tiger Completed

"Bad Fur Day"
20 x 16 inches, pastel on Fisher paper.

Although the tiger was completed without any issues, getting a colour corrected image was incredibly difficult. This was due to both my desktop and laptop computers dying at more or less the same time.

I had an old edition of Photoshop running on the desktop so when that computer ceased to function I wasn't too worried as I have the full CS4 suite running on my Mac Pro Book.

I decided I couldn't justify the expense of buying the windows version for my desktop and I would manage with Photoshop Elements.

So my son went ahead and rebuilt my computer. Within hours of wiping the hard drive my laptop got stuck in an update sequence and of course I couldn't find the system disc to reboot.

So I am currently waiting for new discs to be shipped to me so that my son can (hopefully) repair the laptop.

I needed an accurate image of the tiger because I wanted to submit it on line to a competition.

I couldn't scan because it was far to big for the scanner so I had to photograph it. The light was so poor the resulting image needed correcting which I found incredibly difficult using Elements. I need to add that the version of Elements I had is really, really old, I'm sure the newer versions are far better to use.

I did manage but what would have been a small tweak in Photoshop became a huge task.

Fingers crossed that my laptop is soon operational.

Pastel Tiger Part 4

Almost there, just a little bit more fur and then I'll look at the whole to see if anything needs lightening or darkening.

Pastel Tiger Part 3

Continuing to work on my tiger with a mix of hard and soft pastels.

Pastel Tiger Continued

A little more work done on my tiger. I will add more whiskers later because I will need to do more work on the background once I finish the head.

Pastel Tiger on Fisher Pastel Paper

I decided to work a little bit larger with this tiger so returned to pastels as I work faster with them than any of the other mediums that I use.
This is 20 x 16 inches on Fisher pastel paper. I'm using a mix of soft pastels and pastel pencils. I put down a layer of soft pastel as a base and then work over it with the pencils to add the detail.

If this goes smoothly I'm planning another tiger with a full background that will be around 26 x 20 inches.

Millie the Spaniel continued

I have continued with Millie the Spaniel, now both eyes can watch me :)

I have started adding pages to my blog, the first one will be a showcase for any original artwork I have for sale.
I intend to add a page with details of the materials I use. It might be useful to have all the information in one place rather than spread throughout the blog.
However I've been making the most of the nice weather to tame some areas of the garden. I always find it amazing that anything with thorns grows three times as fast as anything else. Of course my gardening gloves are missing, I have my suspicions that a certain four legged friend, otherwise known as Cody has had something to do with their demise.

Cheshire Game and Country Fair

For the next three days I will have a stand in the craft tent at the Cheshire Game and Country Fair.

The fair is held at the Cheshire showground, if you're in the area come and say hello.

I have restarted the Cavalier King Charles spaniel as something didn't look right to me. I was hoping that after my holiday it would look better, but it didn't.

This time it's pastel on pastelbord 11 x 9.

Pastel Cat - Part 2

A couple of people asked if I'd post progress shots, so here's Poppy after todays work.

The colours aren't quite right as I had to take a photograph using a flash. The light is terrible here in Yorkshire as we're in the middle of a deluge. I have never, ever seen it rain as hard as it has been doing on and off over the last few hours.

Apart from Clinton and Roxie the dogs have point blank refused to go outside. Trying to encourage them to go outside I ended up standing in the dog run in the rain while they watched from the Conservatory door refusing to even put a paw out the door.

Return to Pastel, Poppy the Cat

Years ago I mainly used pastel for my art with an occasional foray into graphite. Then I discovered coloured pencil, followed swiftly by acrylic and watercolour and ended up using mixed media for most of my work.

Every so often I have tried pastels again but been frustrated by the lack of detail I could achieve when compared to coloured pencil and acrylic.

However I wanted to do a picture complete with background for my last submission for the Society of Feline Artists exhibition and decided to give pastel a try. The reason being I can work faster in pastel than anything else and for the background I had in mind the ability to blend was ideal.

This time I used the Fisher pastel paper and was delighted with how much detail it was possible to achieve.

Hopefully the background will go as smoothly as the head.

Lion in Pastel - part 2

I've been working on my lion. I did take time out yesterday to go to Martin Mere and then visit a friends litter of Rough Collie pups.

The lion looks a little like he's just been to the hairdressers, but I'll change that later.

Martin Mere was cold but I got some good photographs of a male Sparrowhawk. It landed on the ground and stayed for quite a long time with its feet in a shallow pond.

The puppies were lovely, our friends consistently breed quality puppies and these were no exception.

A Lion in Pastel

After the Chipmunk I decided I liked my pastels again. I have a love/hate relationship with them and have been in the hate phase recently.
So I started this lion that I photographed at the South Lakes Wildlife Park last summer.
I watched him for quite a while and took lots of photographs, but I like the way he's looking at the viewer with his head slightly tilted in this shot.
It is about 20 x 16 on blue haze Colourfix paper.
I'm laying a base coat with soft pastels then working with pastel pencils for fine hairs. I will finish with really soft pastels to add little highlights.

Chipmunk in Pastel

This has been one of those weeks you prefer to forget, as quickly as possible.

We took my younger son for an interview at the University he hopes to study medicine at on Wednesday. We set off in bright sunshine, ten miles down the road we were in the middle of a snow storm. My car doesn't do snow, it is rear wheel drive with sports tyres which don't tend to have a good grip. The next hour was rather tense.
We got home and the electrics died in it. Unfortunately they died when my husband had been driving, which meant I couldn't move the seat to reach the pedals.

Yesterday the boiler died in spectacular fashion, the circuit board started smoking, so no heat or hot water.

This morning my husband went to take my car to the garage to find not only had the electrics died, so had the car.

But, thanks to a very nice Mercedes technician the car was resucitated enough to make the garage and British Gas replaced the circuit board in the boiler.

The car may or may not return home today, and the boiler needs more work on Monday, but that will be a new week.

I found a piece of black Stonehenge paper and decided to do a small pastel. I know Stonehenge is the favourite paper of many coloured pencil artists but I don't like it. I prefer Arches or Fabriano for coloured pencil which is why I decided to use it for pastel.

This is from one of my photographs of a Chipmunk I saw last summer in South Dakota. It is only small, about 6 x 6.