A Sorry Story

Our dog puppy, who we've finally named Rio, suffered a freak accident last week. He got under the fence and in with the adult dogs in the seconds Bryan's back was turned, and got knocked over. Normally this would have been no problem as he would have been picked up, cuddled and sent back to the garden. But he obviously fell on his face because he suffered a broken bottom jaw.

Because he is so small and has broken it in right on the join, our vets felt there was nothing they could do for him. However, I got him referred to the Animal Medical Centre Referral Services at Manchester as they have a vet who deals in oral and maxillofacial surgery and they are used to dealing with show dogs (in Rio's case prospective show dog).
The vet we saw was wonderful, as were all the nursing staff, even though it was 7.00 at night they were prepared to operate immediately after they had dealt with another emergency admission.
We left him knowing that whatever happened he was in safe hands.
The vet decided to let everything settle down for a week and just 'splint' his jaws and put him a oesophagal tube in to allow us to feed him .
So he came home wearing a string vest to keep his tube clean and out of the way, his jaws taped together and a collar to stop him scratching.


But don't think this is a poorly puppy, the greatest problem we have is stopping him from running about, he is desperate to play with his sister and his mum and cannot understand his solitary confinement. Of course he is getting cuddled by everyone who passes by, and as we have him in the lounge with us there is a lot of through traffic.


Here he is looking extremely cross because he can hear his sister running about in the kitchen.

We take him back next Friday for the vet to decide whether he needs an operation or he can continue letting his body heal itself.

He has a long way to go but he is one tough little puppy so we are praying everything will work out for him.

Early Mornin Play

I am having all my hedges cut later today, so I took the puppies out first thing for their now routine morning romp, because the noise from the hedge cutting will be too much for little puppy ears. It is actually also too much for large dog ears and they are now all protesting that they can't sleep, play or go outside without being deafened. In fact their noise is competing quite satisfactorily with the machine noise, I'm wondering if I should ask the gardener to borrow his ear protectors.
It is a beautiful morning, cold and sunny with a beautiful blue sky and the pups enjoyed running about. We have a large garden with plenty of space, but we do have two large, quite deep ponds. Guess where the puppies make a bee line for, the largest, deepest pond, which is sunk into a patio so falling in it would be easy. No matter how many times I carried them right to the other side of the garden, they dashed back, fortunately my dashing is faster than theirs at present. Although I have a feeling that in not too many days the position will be reversed, then they will have to be confined to a smaller but safer part of the garden.

I decided Roxy should have her own photo this morning and then one of the two of them, don't be fooled by those angelic exteriors.

Back to art, the painting of Juno is now finished, I am pleased with it, because for me it has captured that something that is 'Juno'

I am in the middle of a large commission, which I can't share as the photograph is not mine and it is being done as a gift. But I do hope to start a new work for me later today so I will do it as a demonstration.

Puppies Rule

I wanted to photograph a piece of artwork this morning, and as it has stopped raining decided to go outside.
As I passed the puppies, ever watchful Rosco (name change from Remy/Basil) spotted me and stood up. As we are trying to house train them I picked him up and took him with me. He was well aware that would happen and I am sure he sleeps with one eye open, so he looked very self satisfied.
This morning it is very wet and windy in Yorkshire, although it wasn't actually raining when I went out. I thought the wind might scare him, so put him down in the shelter of the Conservatory, wrong, he immediately climbed into a trough of flowers. I rescued him from there and he did his best 'I rule the world' stand, a show dog in the making I hope.

I am completely puppy orientated at the moment so I completed a new ACEO last night, this time of a border collie puppy from a litter I visited a couple of years ago. It is all coloured pencil on Arches Hot Press Watercolour paper and has been listed on eBay. I think my next small work will have to feature Rosco, I'm sure he's going to pose for the camera.

rough collie puppy

Pooch in Boots

It is my birthday tomorrow and my cyber chums from our Fine Line Artist group have sent me an early present.
Although the present is for me, it actually involves Juno, read on and I'll explain.
I have been known to comment, on how white paws and black mud don't mix when we go to the winter dog shows.
We leave home for the show with Juno having four sparkling white legs and feet. If it has been raining we usually arrive to find a large expanse of churned up black sticky mud. We sit in the car and start the great debate. Can we pick our way through the mud or has my long suffering husband to carry Juno.
We usually start with Juno walking, but what you have to realise is that when Juno arrives at a show he usually needs to announce his arrival by jumping around. During the course of the jumping he spreads the mud far and wide, up his legs, onto his white tummy, and onto Bryan (I've usually moved out of the firing line as I need to stay clean to go in the ring). Then we decide to pick him up, this of course spreads the mud even further up Bryan as Juno struggles to get down, complaining loudly that Rough Collies do not want carrying.

So, my friends have bought me a set of very nice black waterproof boots for Juno. I tried them on him yesterday and he was absolutely horrified. First, he tried to walk without his feet touching the floor, then when he picked himself up, he lifted his legs up as high as he could, then he sat down and refused to move.
I am sure that at the next show Juno will arrive with clean legs, but I'm afraid that Bryan will be no better off, except little black boots will spread the mud rather than white paws.

New Beginnings and Nearly Finished

Roma's pups are now looking less like little rodents and more like puppies, not yet Rough Collie puppies but getting there. So here are Roxy (Glenspey Heavely Star) and Remy (aka Basil, Glenspey Shooting Star)


The pups are beginning to develop personalities now, Roxy is more confident in the house, but when we made the most of yesterdays sunshine she collapsed in a heap at her first taste of the great outdoors. Basil however wandered about quite happily in a short sighted blundering way.
Roxy gave her first bark yesterday and frightened herself, she hasn't repeated the experience yet.
The first photograph is 'Roxy', the second 'Basil.
























I have been working on my Juno painting and have almost finished. I found the background was starting to come forward a little so I airbrushed some very pale blue over it all.

It's a Dog's Life

I've decided it's time that I got back on track with my dog paintings, having been side tracked by cats for some considerable time.
Roma's puppies are now doing well enough to be left sleeping in their box for short periods of time so I can go large again.
Puppy photo's will be coming, when they look less like small rodents and more like collie puppies.

After spending so much time watching my own collies over the last few days I decided to launch my new series 'It's a Dog's Life' with my own Juno.
I posted the photo in my blog earlier this year and have been meaning to paint it ever since. I am trying to move away from simple head studies to setting the dog in a background, to portray a slice of its life.
This is on drafting film, approx 20 x 18 inches, I have used an airbrush for the background, but Juno himself is all coloured pencil so far.

Less Work, More Play.

I have not done very much art work over the last week as I have spent most of my time watching over Roma and her babies.
She gave birth two nice pups on Sunday morning so I have spent a lot of my making sure the new family have everything they need, mainly warmth, peace and quiet at this stage. She had a dog who will be known as Remy (Glenspey Shooting Star) and a bitch Roxy (Glenspey Heavenly Star).
Roxy will stay here with us at Glenspey if all goes well and Remy is already spoken for, so the stress of finding the right home is removed this time.
I will take a photograph in a few days.

I did however finish my cat on black and called it 'Dark and Dainty', prints will be available from the end of October. The original will go to America to be exhibited in our first Fine Line Artists exhibition.



















Now I don't need to sit with the pups all the time, I have started another cat on black stonehenge, this time I am adding to my 'up close and personal' series.




















It is amazing how much faster I can work on black, I have only taken about eight hours on this one so far.

Colourful Black

Roma's litter has still not arrived so I am carrying on working in a small format.
I decided to create another ACEO on black, but this time I decided to go colourful. It was a great deal of fun putting blues and violets into a black cat and the result was quite pleasing, at least it was to me.

ACEO
coloured pencil
colored pencil
Fine Line Artists










As I'd brought a huge sheet of black stonehenge down from the loft, I decided to carry on working on black, but go slightly larger.
The Fine Line Artists first joint exhibition is in December so I thought I'd do something for that.
This is all coloured pencil and is approximately 9 x 7.
I nearly always put in the eyes first, but once they were done I abandoned my usual way of working one small area to completion and worked over the whole cat.
This first stage makes the poor cat look a little evil because the bright eyes glow in the middle of all that dark.



















I then added some brighter colours, blue and a bright orange to give it some punch and started work on the chest fur.
This one is starting to look a lot less menacing as the fur colours start to brighten.
Because this is much less detailed than my usual way of working it is also much faster, I might be able to acheive my eventual aim of producing a new piece of art every week.

Small is Beautiful, and Collectable

As I am spending most of my waking hours watching Roma for any signs of impending labour, I decided to try something small, and easy to pick up and put down if necessary.
The perfect thing seemed to be to create an ACEO, or to give them their pedigree name, Art Cards, Editions and Originals. (I am busy thinking about pedigree names for Roma's pup(s) )
These cards can be created in any material, using any surface, and cover any subject material. There is just one rule, they must be a uniform size of 3.5 x 2.5 inches, this is the same size as a trading card.
These little cards are immensely popular as they are a way of collecting original art at affordable prices. If you put ACEO into google you will find out just how popular they are.
They can be mounted and framed in the same way as larger works of art, or put in special collectors albums.
Some artists specialise in ACEO's and some just create them as an addition to larger works perhaps when time is limited.
Several members of our Fine Line Artists group produce ACEO's on a regular basis and sell them on eBay, have a look on eBay for katherinellis, caulfieldfineart and greywaren, as well as my own identity, glenspey1a.
This is one I did a while ago and sold.


















This time I wanted to do something fun, so with Halloween not to far in the distance I created this one. It is coloured pencil on mountboard and is on eBay now.















Although I enjoyed creating a fun piece it is not something i would want to do very often so my next one is back to my usual macro cat portraits, coloured pencil and acrylic on black pastel paper.

ACEO
Fine Line Artists

Sunshine and Ice

It's a beautiful day here in Yorkshire, too hot in fact for poor Roma whose puppies are due next week.
I even saw a Hummimg Bird Hawk moth in the garden this morning, I'd never seen one before and had to 'Ask Jeeves' what sort of insect looked like a Hummimg Bird. Sadly by the time I got the camera out it had gone to find a more tasty variety of plant.

I decided it was time to get a move on and finish my gesso experiments, so out came the penguins.
I completed the feet in coloured pencil and then added more acrylic to the background, a mixture of Ultramarine Blue, Payne's Grey and White.
The bodies need some colour adding to develop form, but then I'm going to varnish them, frame them and let my son have them. I have been fighting with the grain, I didn't put enough layers of gesso on, or sand well enough, so I'm not sure if I will repeat the exercise.

penguin
acrylic painting
Humming Bird Hawk Moth

Introducing the Fine Line Artist Group

This is a brief introduction to a group of eight artists called 'Fine Line Artists' , a group that I helped to create in September 2005.

Since then we've worked together to help develop our art and artistic ambitions. We have now decided to launch a new website to promote the members to a wider audience.

Fine Line Artists is a group of eight artists who live on three different continents, in four different countries, and in five different parts of North America. Their ages cross four decades and they have very different backgrounds but they nevertheless share common goals.

The group was formed in September 2005, primarily to provide support both for the development of their art and, for some, the business of being an artist. Their aims have been to achieve artistic growth through honest dialogue and to provide help and support at all times - in dealing with the challenges presented by their artwork, the art business and life generally.

The artists met one another in an internet art forum and subsequently developed close friendships through e-mail correspondence and the subsequent formation of their own private forum in September 2005. This year, some of them have been travelling very many miles to meet up 'face to face' for the very first time.

Since forming, they have met many personal challenges, supported much development and celebrated very many achievements.

They are all unequivocal that they have achieved much more by being a member of this group than they might have done pursuing their art as an individual.

The other members of the group are:-

Nicole Caulfield - New Hampshire, USA

Katherine Ellis - Maine, USA

Louise Sacett - California, USA

Maggie Stiefvater - Virginia, USA

Katherine Tyrrell - London, UK

Gordon Leverton - Ontario, Canada

Wendy Prior - South Island, New Zealand

If you want to find out more then visit our website:-

www.finelineartists.com

Fine Line Artists
art

Society of Feline Artists Exhibition - 4th - 23rd September

Yesterday saw me travelling to London to meet my friend and fellow artist Katherine Tyrrell to attend the Private viewing and opening of the Society of Feline Artists (SOFA) annual exhibition.
The exhibition is held at the LLewellyn Alexander Gallery in Waterloo and was opened by David Grant MBE who is the patron of the Society. I remembered him from the TV programme 'Animal Hospital.
I have had two pieces accepted into the exhibition 'Sitting Pretty' and 'Stepping Out'

Sitting Pretty

I actually had my photograph taken outside the gallery, make the most of it because it doesn't happen very often.

Cheetah continued

I'm continuing to layer acrylic to build up the fur and finding that I am really enjoying painting after spending so much time with dry media.
I keep adding small fur strokes then glazing with a darker colour and the fur is now starting to show some depth. The close up of the fur is actually larger than it is in RL.

What do Colourfix primer, Gesso and canvas have in Common?

The answer is, that I've been combining them to try to find an ideal surface to use coloured pencil on that I can then varnish and send abroad without the need for framing under glass.

With thinking Roma might be in whelp I've stopped using pastel unless she is well away from any dust, and started this.

The first experiment was applying colourfix primer to a canvas board using a small roller. I tinted the primer with Raw Umber Chromacolour liquid acrylic as I didn't want to work on white.
This proved to be far too rough for my way of working, I could not get the fine detail for fur, although the eyes came out well.

















I abandoned that one as a failure.

I then got some white gesso and again using a foam roller applied it to another canvas board. This time I let it dry and then lightly sanded it down before applying another coat and resanding. The surface this time was much smoother and the coloured pencil went on easily. As I've been promising to paint my youngest son some penguins for at least four years, I used his photograph.
The penguins are coloured pencil, the background is acrylic, it will be finished later.

I decided to carry on with the experimenting and did the same thing, but this time used a black gesso. I found it to be thicker than the white, really nice to paint on and it came out a lovely rich matte black. Again I sanded and applied another coat.
This time I found it harder to get the fur strokes in coloured pencil, so I used the pencils for an undercoat and painted on top using acrylic.
I am happy with the gesso on canvas and aim to produce some smaller pieces that I can send abroad.



animal painting
coloured pencil
gesso
wildlife art

Chase The Tail

After seeing the wildlife artwork of some of the members of the Marwell International Wildlife Art Society I have been wanting to go larger. Sadly all that has happened up to now is that my waistline has expanded due to the excellent food I ate while on holiday.
However I have just started a new wildlife pastel painting using a full sheet of Sienna Pastel Card.
The size is 24 x 20 inches and I am using a mix of hard and soft pastels of several different brands.
I did the outline drawing in black pastel after doing rough sketches on cartridge paper.
I had already done the rough work before I went away and left the photographs and the cartridge paper covering some of the pastel card for a couple of weeks. The first photograph shows what happened, the card faded under the paper. After discussing this with my artist friend Katherine Tyrrell we wondered if this was due to the fact that the cartridge paper would not be acid free. If this has happened to anyone else I would be interested in knowing. I know that my drawing breaks several well established rules but I decided to give it a go anyway. What I hadn't considered was the dead space in between the two tigers, so my challenge will be to make that interesting and yet not draw the eye away from the cubs.
I started putting in some background colours using a range of Unison and Rembrandt soft pastels.
Once I had a base to work on I erased the reeds before adding the colour. I wanted them to stand out and not be contaminated by the background colours.
I continued to work on the background and made a start on the tiger.
Colours used so far are mainly as follows:-
Background:-Unison, BE7, 8 and 11, Rembrandt, Goldochre in 3 different tones, Windsor and Newton Burnt Umber tint 2 and a CarbOthello pencil 620.
Tiger:-
All the above plus CarbOthello black, Nupastels in several shades, I can't tell you the colours as my set is not labelled, Unison, orange 16 and 17 and yellow 7 and 14.
Plus a white charcoal pencil.


pastel
wildlife art
tiger
pastel demonstration

Back From the Wilds

We have just returned from a couple of weeks holiday in Scotland. Not at all restful with two teenage sons and three Rough Collies but very enjoyable.
Eldest son realised his social life was being terminally interrupted after a couple of days with no signal for his mobile phone and complained so much that he ended up going home on the train earlier than the rest of us.
Clinton, Juno and Roma had a great time, although Roma has decided that she is a lady in waiting and had to have the best spot in the car, the room etc. I'm yet to be convinced that it is not her imagination, but early days yet.
The photo shows Bryan and Clinton doing what men and dogs do best, and i'm not saying what that is.
Anyone got any suggestions for a caption.











Whilst I was away on holiday my friend and fellow artist took two of my originals to the handing in day for the Society of Feline Artists at the Llewellyn Alexander Gallery and they were both accepted for the exhibition which starts in September.
http://www.llewellynalexander.com/future.htm
My friend also had both her pictures accepted, more about the exhibition later, but I am very pleased my work was accepted.

An Ending and Hopefully a New Beginning

Since my last post I have had to say goodbye to one of my collies, Chelsey, who was only three years old. From start to finish her illness only lasted about ten days and right until the last moment we never thought it was life threatening. But once she became distressed the right thing to do was give her release.
As I had never bred from her I didn't have a post mortem done but the vet thinks she had some sort of acute liver failure.

I had planned to mate Roma at her next season and after a lot of deliberation we took her to visit the dog we had chosen last weekend.
Roma thoroughly enjoyed the whole experience and in fact escaped from the run we had put her in to rest and went back to the scene of her mating, perhaps hoping for part two.
Here is a recent photograph of Roma , she is still naughty but maturing nicely. We have got our fingers crossed that we will have the patter of tiny paws in due course.















On the painting side I am almost finished with Gabby the Norwegian Forest Cat, she needs a little bit more work on her shadow and a little bit more work on the grass. This is mainly coloured pencil but I have added tiny hairs of acrylic. I will post a close up of the fur so anyone interested can see how I've done it.

Back to Art

Since my last post my son has had major heart surgery to repair coarctation of his aorta. We discovered he had the condition almost eighteen months ago and he finally had the operation. This meant a couple of days in intensive care, followed by several days on an ordinary ward. The care he received in hospital was fantastic but now he is home I can finally return to my neglected art.

I am carrying on with several projects.

The 3rd Norwegian Forest Cat is now coming together after a phase of looking 10 foot tall, I hope she will continue to shrink as I start work on ther back.
I did the path by laying down several colours of pencil then blending using the Zest It Pencil Blend Solvent, this worked really well in giving a less defined look to the path. I might well go back and define a few foreground stones.


animal art
coloured pencil
Norwegian Forest Cat
Zest It
Unison Pastels






The Zebra's continue to move forward, or backward depending on the viewpoint. I am nearly ready to start putting the forward facing Zebra in. This one is all coloured pencil on Arches Hot Press Watercolour paper.













The Lemurs have not moved forward but I have purchased the Light and Dark set of Unison pastels which I am finding really useful. I will hopefully post an update later

Dianna Ponting Workshop

I have just attended the workshop that Canadian artist Dianna Ponting held in Lancashire, UK.
Dianna is a lovely lady and a wonderful artist, I thoroughly enjoyed my two days.
We were using pastels and Dianna had brought lots of her own for us to try out. I was particularly impressed with the Holbeins and the Terry Ludwig darks, although I still have a real fondness for Unison. I like Schminke and Sennelier but find them both very soft and only useful in the final layers.
I was working on Royal Sovereign pastel card in Raw Sienna, which is quite harsh and retains plenty of pigment.
On the first day we all worked from the same photo, but on the second we moved onto our own projects.
I was going to work on my friends Norwegian Forest Cat, but forgot to take the photo, so I used one of my own photo's of a mother and baby Ring Tailed Lemur.
I didn't get a lot done, but pastel moves much faster than coloured pencil so I hope to finish it over the weekend.

Drive-ing Me Mad

Another week of chaos in the Mason house, just when we had all recovered from the kitchen rebirth, the builders came to block pave the driveway. I have to say that these two guys are excellent, they come early in the morning, only require their cups to be refilled and tidy up every evening. However once the original drive was dug up, and the steps removed we were left with a two foot drop to ground level. No problem, until you remember that I've torn my calf muscle and can only move my leg a fraction in any direction. My two sons continued to hurtle out the door, dropping to earth with a thud, they even continued when the newly laid cement was drying waiting for the block paving to be added to the two semi-circular steps. They suggested I blame the four huge footprints on cats when the builders queried them the morning after.
We also can't walk on the paving that is already down until the silicon sand has been added, but you try explaining to my dogs that they have to walk down a strip 4 inches wide when they can see terra firma all around.
I think the paving has been re started three times now and I can see the £ signs shooting upwards.
Five days later and the paving is creeping nearer the door, sons and dogs are banned from leaving the house in case they move it yet again. Clinton is looking at the lounge window wondering if it is open wide enough to fit a Collie through, guess what's underneath it, correct, unsealed block paving, I think I'll close the window.

In the midst of chaos I have managed to continue with Gabby, Norwegian Foresat Cat 3. I have added some pines, a bit of grass and started underpainting a path for her dainty feet. Pity my sons and dogs haven't got feet that size, less reworking of the drive would have been needed. That has reminded me that one of the neighbourhood cats used the level, packed sand as a litter tray.

cat portrait

The Grass is Always Greener

My torn muscle has kept me away from the computer for a while as I need to keep my leg elevated, so my blog has suffered, but the swelling is a little better today so I'm back.

There is a double meaning to today's title, on the one hand it is the working title of a wildlife work in progress, on the other it refers to someone 'borrowing' my name and art.

Last week I was alerted to the fact that 8 of my images had been posted on DeviantArt by someone using my name. I was upset, more by the use of my name than my art, as I fully accept there was no intention to sell my work, just use it to get attention.
I was also, to put it mildly, simply furious and emailed several online friends to tell them what had happened. The instant support I got from my friends in the on line art community was wonderful and helped me through a difficult few hours. Several people posted comments on DA identifying the artwork as belonging to me, and my great friend Katherine Tyrrell highlighted my problem in her blog, see www.makingamark.blogspot.com
I complained to DA, and have to commend them for the almost instant response to my email, they removed my artwork and banned the person who had posted it.
End of story, well almost, I'm still unhappy that this person used my name and have to wonder why they didn't create their own artwork to share, perhaps the 'grass is always greener' It did make me wonder if I should continue to post my work online, but I decided the benefits far outweigh the risks.

Back to my artwork, this is a coloured pencil portrait of four Zebra, three looking one way, one the other, hence 'the grass is always greener'
It is on Arches hot press watercolour paper and is approximately 16 x 8 inches. I wanted to do something a little bit different rather than just a Zebra portrait.
My focus will hopefully be on the Zebra facing the viewer, but it might be a while before I get there, the stripes tend to form one blurry mass when I've worked on them for a while.
I'm creating the black by layering the following Prismacolour pencils, Cloud Blue, Deco Orange, Light Blue, Pumpkin Orange, Grape, Indigo Blue then Polychromos Soft Black. I am burnishing some areas with the Cloud Blue. The white is mainly Derwent Signature, Rutile White which I use a lot as it it is a thick creamy white when layered heavily.
coloured pencil
wildlife portrait
painting

Well Done Juno

On Sunday I was showing Juno and Jorja at Bath Championship Dog Show under one of the top UK Judges.
The showground was rather muddy and Juno who was in the ring first, took a bit of cleaning to restore his paws to their natural white.
But he was on his very best behaviour and didn't put a paw wrong in his class, which he won.
He then returned to the ring to challenge the other class winners for the Dog Challenge Certificate and again behaved really well. To my absolute amazement the judge awarded him the Reserve Challenge Certificate, meaning he was the 2nd best dog on the day. He is only 18 months old and still quite immature and this was my first RCC, so it was a really special win.

The day did not finish on such a high note, as while running Jorja in her class I tore my calf muscle and had to limp out of the ring. It is not often the owner retires with faulty movement!. Jorja went on to get 3rd in her large Limit class handled by my husband who can not run either due to knee problems, but he did manage a better pace than I would have done.

Knowing when to Quit

I've just abandoned Norwegian Forest Cat 3, but I really should have done so a couple of days ago.
Early on I realised the wall I had painted was too high in contrast, the cat could not have competed with it and as the cat was the focus of the painting, well, end of story.
So why did I carry on when I knew it wasn't working, I don't know the answer, the only thing I can think of is that I really don't like to be beaten. However I could have saved myself two wasted days if I'd given up earlier, next time I'll go with the gut feeling.

This then, is version 2, same cat but different pose.
I think another thing bothering me about version 1 was that the cat was very static, so in this one there is some movement.
I am using my favourite drafting film and so far it is all worked in coloured pencil. I have added some water to the sky using a water brush. On drafting film you can move ordinary coloured pencil around, and blend as easily as when using water colour pencils.
I apologise for the poor quality of the scan, the light here in West Yorkshire is too poor for a photograph, but I will update later today if the weather improves.



Norwegian Forest Cat
pet portrait
coloured pencil

Colour Choices

Because drafting film will not take many layers, initial colour choice is even more important than when using paper for coloured pencil work.
Therefore, although a little after the event I have to admit, I have decided to create myself a colour wheel for drafting film.
To start with I am using two brands of coloured pencil, Polychromos and Prismacolour.
I tried to select a true colour for my primaries, these were as follows:-
Polychromos, Cadmium Yellow, Cobalt and Deep Scarlet Red
Prismacolour, Canary Yellow, Ultramarine and Scarlet Lake.

I then layered these, keeping the brands separate to produce my secondaries. Without fail I found the Polychromos blended together better on the drafting film.
The outer layer are polychromos, the inner prismacolour.

I am going to add to the wheel but will be concentrating on fur colours initially.

New Norwegian Forest Cat

With Jorja's continuing antics I have not been able to motivate myself to start any new artwork for the last few days.
However, I had to get up at 4.30am this morning to ensure my youngest son got to school by 5.15am to catch the coach for his trip to Belgium. Jorja was convinced I could only be getting up that early because her time had come. So the usual choas ensued with a lot of groaning from eldest son who did not have to emerge at that hour and did not appreciate Clinton moaning and groaning, and Jorja huffing and puffing from opposite ends of the house.
So, having extra time to spare I started my third Norwegian Forest Cat painting.

I wanted to try something different on the drafting film so I started an underpainting in acrylic.
For the rocks I put some Burnt Umber and Paynes Grey down and then dabbed it with crinkled cellophane to give texture. Because I personally find acrylic a little bright, once the paint was dry I covered the rocks with a thin layer of white gesso . I can now work over this layer with coloured pencil to add as much detail as required.
For the moss I used Hookers Green & a touch of Paynes Grey left it to dry. I made the same mix again but this time but added a touch Yellow Ochre and then dabbed it on using a natural sea sponge, once dry I used my gesso again. I then mixed Cadmium Yellow, a tiny touch of Hookers green and alittle gesso and painted in some highlights. Again I will work over this with coloured pencil.


acrylic
cat
painting
drafting film

Spring is in the Air, and not just the Air!

I have had to put my painting slightly to one side due to organised chaos in the Mason household.
Last week I had a new kitchen fitted and Jorja came into season. Now on their own neither of them would have been a big deal, but taken together chaos was created.
Imagine the scenario, two strange men take up residence in the kitchen for four days, removing access to water, cooking facilities and more importantly the outside world, unless I went out the front door and round the side of the house.
If Roma had come into season it would have been no problem and Saska decided puppies were not for her long ago, but Jorja encourages the dogs for almost her whole season and we don't want her to have a litter this year. We are only just getting over her last litter, and Roma and Juno are 19 months old.
Clinton and Juno don't like one another when we have a bitch in season and neither can be left with Jorja so I have spent four days moving animals from one place to another with Jorja encouraging the dogs at every turn. She's done an awful lot of turning, usually to position her rear end invitingly for anything that moves.
She was due to go to a show on Saturday under a judge that I thought would like her but she obviously had to stay at home, the score so far is Jorja 10, Gayle 0.
Anyway peace is returning, the kitchen is finished, and Clinton and Juno are finally stopping pacing round the room, Jorja however is still hopeful.

Kittens now Printed

I've come to the end of the Norwegian Forest Cat kittens painting, I made the deadline for taking it to be printed, just.
I decided I needed to add something to break up the large space at the bottom left and decided on a rock. I made the choice because I wanted something to fade into the grass and I could use the same colours as the larger kitten to bring unity to the painting.
Here is the completed print, which is avialable from my website. I have chosen the title 'Sitting Pretty' for the print.