Amur Leopard in Graphite

'Striding Out'

Graphite on Mellotex, 17.5 x 11.75 inches

I'm alive and well but have been really busy with real life happenings.

I have a new pencil practice article in this months Leisure Painter magazine (May 2014) on drawing weathered wood in coloured pencil.

'Weathered Stump' the subject of my latest pencil practice article

The next article will be in the July issue and will be techniques for drawing water.

I've marked plenty of assignments for the London Art College diploma course on drawing and painting pet portraits.

I'm in the middle of painting two large commissions of a lovely old Airedale called Joe. I had the pleasure of meeting Joe and his owners at Wetherby service station on a bitterly cold winter day so that I could take my own photographs and meet Joe in person.

Show season is fast approaching, my first show of the year will be the Harrogate Spring Flower Show which takes place at the end of this month.

I do intend to get back into a regular blogging routine as it helps me to focus on getting things completed.

National Exhibition of Wildlife Art

I finally completed my squirrel and got her framed ready to meet the deadline for the last handing in day for the NEWA exhibition.

NEWA is the National Exhibition of Wildlife Art and is the biggest wildlife art exhibition outside London.

The 2007 website will open on Saturday 21st July and will showcase the work of all the artists gaining entry to the show. All work will be available for purchase through the website.

http://www.newa-uk.com/

The exhibition is held at Gordale Garden Centre on the Wirral, if you like wildlife art and are in the area it will be well worth visiting.

The exhibition runs from the 20th July - 5th August from 9.30am - 6pm every day.

I entered my meerkat 'Sentry Duty' and of course my squirrel 'On the Edge', and have had my fingers crossed that at least one of them got selected.

This morning I found that the list of exhibitors for 2007 was posted on the website. Although I hardly dared look, you cannot imagine my excitement when I saw my name included. I don't know if just one or both have been selected, but I can't wait for the preview evening on Thursday.

Last weekend I attended my second workshop held by Mike Sibley. This time we were studying mist, water and reflections, it was a great two days of which I will write more later.

Wild about Graphite

Every now and then I get cravings, in my case not for food, but for the humble pencil.

I can just sit down with my pencil and start to create.

I mainly use a 2mm clutch pencil made by Staedtler, just occasionally changing to a 0.5mm lead for very fine detail. I mostly use a HB lead, but do add darks with a 2B, even sometimes going as far as 6B in the eye. If I use a 6B I always then go over it with a harder lead to dull the shine.

I decided I wanted to do another wild animal piece so had a look through my photographs.

This Meerkat is from one of my own images, I take many Meerkat photographs as I love their funny little faces.

We had a trip to the Zoo at weekend and the Meerkats posed for me.

My drawing is about 12 x 8 inches, on Arches Hot Press Watercolour paper. I really like Arches paper as it is smooth but can take plenty of graphite. The only slight disadvantage is that it is a touch cream coloured, which makes reproduction a little more difficult than if it was a bright white.

There is more at the bottom of the picture but it doesn't fit on my scanner.