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.

The Supreme Cat Show

I've been busy printing and mounting/matting prints when I haven't been working this week. Next Saturday I will have a stand at the Supreme Cat Show at the NEC (National Exhibition Centre) This cat is on sand coloured Pastelbord.

Cat on Ampersand Pastelbord

This is one of our friends Norwegian Forest Cats.

I took the photograph a couple of years ago and have been meaning to paint him ever since.

I'm using the sand coloured Ampersand Pastelbord, 11 x 14.

The background has an underlayer of Caran D'Ache Neocolor ll, it is indigo blue rather than black, the scan is not quite correct colour wise.

Fox and Kingfisher

I'm starting to build some depth in the coat with layers of acrylic, still a long way to go. I'll add some glazes next.

Yesterday I was lucky enough to be in the right place at the right time to capture a pair of Kingfishers with my camera. I've never before been close enough to get usable photographs, yesterday I got around 100. Some are a little blurred but all are usable. Here are a couple.

Red Fox continued

I've had very little time this week but am managing to put in a little time on the Red Fox.
Some of it is looking a little flat bgut that should start to improve with the next layers.

Further Foxy Fun

After struggling with the ear I've now struggled with the muzzle. It looks a simple shape, it is a simple shape, could I draw it, no.

I resorted to blue as have so many half removed white lines, no wonder he looks miserable.

Notice how I'm avoiding the ear.

Fox part 2

I thought I'd better do the background next. I put a layer of Neocolour ll down then started working in coloured pencil. So far I've done the left hand side, you can see the line where I've got to.

Fox on Ampersand Pastelbord

I sometimes take a drawing to work if I think I might have a lunch break. I try to take something that doesn't tear, or bend, or crease in my briefcase. Ampersand pastelbord is ideal, it survives the journey intact, of course getting coffee tipped on it is a whole different thing.

This fox is on the sand colour, it's 11 x 14 and up to now I've just used coloured pencils, that however could change any second I can feel the call of the acrylic.

I didn't get work on it at lunch by the way, I remembered had to pick some frames up from my local art shop.

Comparison of Pastelmat, Pastelbord and Fisher 400 paper

I have recently read several discussions among artists about using supports other than paper, so here are my experiences with the above.

'Eye to Eye'

cat on Pastelmat, for the 2009 SOFA exhibition in September

Pastelmat

Made by Clairefontaine, acid free, 360 g/m2, available in various colours as single sheets or in pads.

Two sizes of sheet available: 50 x 70cms or 70 x 100cm's.

Can be purchased in the UK from Great Art or Tim Fisher.

I have used both the black and the white.

I found the surface mid way between colourfix and velour, certainly much softer than either the Pastelbord or Fisher 400. It took several layers, you could get a nice sharp line and on the black it was possible to get a really white, white. I have found this difficult on some black surfaces.

I could not get as many layers as on the Arches paper I often use, but this didn't matter to me as the colour saturation was good.

Katherine Tyrrell has done a review of Pastelmat on her Making a Mark Reviews Blog.

'Aristocrat'

Cat on Pastelbord

Sold by the Llewellyn Alexander Gallery, London, SOFA 2008

Pastelbord

Made by Ampersand in the USA.
Ampersand Pastelbord is described as "a clay and gesso hardboard panel with a granular marble dust finish" The pastelbord is available in four colours, sand, grey, green and white.
I have not found a supplier in the UK, I have had to use mail order from America which makes it expensive.
I ordered samples of all four colours although up to now I have only worked on the sand one. The Ampersand website shows the four colours and gives much more information on the product, including the diversity of media you can use on it.
So far I have used acrylic, coloured pencil and neocolorII.;
This is the hardest of the three surfaces and can be framed without glass.
Again it takes several layers but I found it harder to get the fine lines for my fur than on either of the softer surfaces, it is possible, just harder to do. It is again possible to get white, whites and paint highlights in acrylic if you don't mind mixed media.
The benefit to me of the Pastelbord was framing without glass.

Fisher 400

I wrote about this in my last post.

Developed by UK artist Tim Fisher it is a sanded pastel paper.

Supplied by Tim Fisher in the UK, International customers are welcome.

I probably enjoyed working on this surface the best, it almost 'grabbed' the colour, was easy to blend and burnish yet retained sharp edges where I wanted them.

You can read an in depth review of the paper here by super talented artist Nicole Caulfield. Nicole also uses Pastelbord for her work, her portraits are stunning, especially the one she did of my son., 'Rob'

Links

The Ampersand website

Tim Fisher's Website

Great Art website

Nicole's blog

Making a Mark Reviews - the introduction

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.

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.

Art Materials - Part 2

The other new surface I have been using this year is Pastelbord.

I use Ampersand Pastelbord which is described as "a clay and gesso hardboard panel with a granular marble dust finish"

The pastelbord is available in four colours, sand, grey, green and white. I ordered samples of all four colours although up to now I have only worked on the sand one.

The Ampersand website shows the four colours and gives much more information on the product, including the diversity of media you can use on it.

What I want to do, is let you know what my experience of working with it has been.

The first thing I tried was a cheetah on one of the smaller panels, I used coloured pencil and some acrylic. Although it is desribed as being similar to working on sanded paper, I found that initially it was harder to work with because of its inflexibility.

Once I had adapted my working method things became much easier.

I used more pressure with the pencil, certainly on the early layers a soft touch is not required, but you can continue to add layer after layer.

I was also not successful in adding acrylic staight onto the surface, it was too rough for me to get a fine line. I did however successfully add touches of acrylic on top of the pencil.

For the background I blended the colours using the solvent 'Zest it', this worked really well.

Once finished I had no need to frame under glass, I simply varnished it.

Around the time I was starting a new painting I saw a couple of artists using Neocolor ll combined with coloured pencil on pastelbord and liked the effect they were able to get.

The Neocolor ll are made by Caran D'Ache and are a watersoluble stick of pigment.

I added these to the background and the fur of 'Shred' and liked how easy they were to work with.

Shred was the painting I was working on whilst demonstrating at the NEC, and people were amazed at the effect you could get with coloured pencils.

Again I used touches of acrylic to bring out a few highlights.

I will continue to use Pastelbord, I like the finished effect and the fact that you can frame without glass. It is vastly different from working on drafting film and the end result is different, so I would look at what I wanted the final resultto be in order to decide which surface to use.

The one draw back is that I have to order the Pastelbord from America, I have yet to find a supplier based in Europe.

To be continued............

I'm in Love

It's true, Spring has arrived, the dogs are frolicking and I've fallen in love, with Ampersand Pastelbord.
Ampersand have some very interesting supports on offer and their website is well worth a visit.
www.ampersandart.com

Several of my fellow Fine Line artists have already used this support and liked it, so I decided to give it a try. Unfortunately I could not find a UK supplier so had to use the US firm Dick Blick's mail order service. I have always found their service to be excellent, but you do have to be aware that on top of postage and packing there is the added import tax to pay.

I ordered small pieces in grey, white and sand and a couple of larger pieces of white.

I am wanting to paint some wildlife pieces so I decided to use one of my own reference photographs of a cheetah. The small size will be preparation work for a larger painting at some stage.

Here are the stages in the creation of 'Aloof' size 5"x7", coloured pencil on Ampersand pastelbord.

You can use solvent such as Zest-It on the pastelbord and it gives the most brilliant colour saturation.

The great advantage of using pastelbord is that the work can be varnished and framed without the need for glass.