Reference Material and Acrylic Tiger

I am still painting a tiger in acrylic, but I have changed tigers and am now working on drafting film rather than gessobord.
I airbrushed the background using several layers of liquid acrylic.

I have had several questions recently on how to find reference material to paint or draw wildlife. Obviously the ideal is to use your own photographs. I have been steadily building up a large portfolio of animal photographs from visits to various zoo's and wildlife parks throughout the UK. I also took almost 2000 photographs whilst on holiday in Canada and the US last year. The problem with captive animals is that they are often fatter than their wild counterparts and can show untypical behaviour due to being caged.

Sometimes though you want to paint an animal you haven't got a suitable photograph of, or a pose you haven't got, or you want to make sure you set it in its natural habitat. What do you do then?

You can try websites which offer high quality photographs for a fee. Two good websites that I have used are;-

Fotolia and

Dreamstime

Do however make sure that you purchase the correct licence for the intended use. If you want to use in any derivative work, which includes art, then you need to purchase the extended licence.

If you see a photograph you like while browsing the web you can email the photographer and ask for permission to use it. You need to specify exactly what you intend to use the photograph for and ask what compensation they require if they agree to let you use it. If you think that in the future you would like to sell the finished artwork, or have prints made, then again you need to detail that in your initial query.

If you intend to paint a background with the animal in a natural setting, then what works best for me is to watch as many DVD's or television programmes about the animal as possible. If I see some foliage etc that I think I could use, I freeze the picture and sketch the background. I also use books and magazine to research the animals natural habitat.

Painting a tiger in acrylic

I haven't been around lately because I've been spending all my time painting. I had this foolish notion that it would be like drawing with a brush and I would just be able to transfer my drawing skills to painting. How wrong I was.

I am on version number 4, having settled on acrylic rather than oil for the time being. With having the dogs, especially Clinton who lies under my drawing table, I was worried about the potential toxic effects of the solvent.

This is the first time I have been happy with my progress, although an earlier version did have furry fur, but it looked muddy.

It is all acrylic, 8 x 10 on Ampersand gessobord, i transferred my line drawing using graphite paper. There is more tiger but nothing to see yet.

Tiger ACEO

This is my latest ACEO, acrylic and coloured pencil on drafting film.

SOLD

Comparison of Oil and Acrylic

A little while ago you might remember I painted a Chipmunk on Ivorine, I decided to list him on eBay although I'm not worried if he doesn't sell as I'm very fond of him.

I've almost got another Tiger ACEO to list, hopefully later tonight.

However I've been working on two small paintings, one in acrylic, one in oil. I want to see which process I enjoy more, and which turns out the best.

Both are 5 x 7 inches, the oil is on canvas board, the acrylic on heavyweight Arches Hot Press Watercolour paper.

With both of them I am trying to paint a mid toned under painting. This was more successful on the acrylic as I put my small brushes away and made a real effort not to paint any detail. The hardest thing I'm finding with painting rather than drawing is 'unlearning' how I work. With a drawing I work with tiny strokes and detail from the first mark, that is not how I want to paint. I want to establish form and build up from there.

This is the acrylic, a Snow Leopard from my own reference photograph.

Remember this is at the ugly stage and I need to do something with the sky it is totally wrong in tone.

The oil is a Cheetah, also from my own reference photograph.

It has a strange glare because the paint was still wet, again this is at the ugly stage.

Hopefully when I post again they will be looking very much better.

More ACEO's

It has actually been dry today, the dogs were amazed when they queued up on the mat to have their paws wiped and they were sent straight inside. They have developed a paw wiping routine, they let Saska go first as she complains her old feet will drop off if they stay wet any longer, then Roxie pushes in because she can't bear not knowing what's going on. The others push and shove like naughty children and Clinton objects to coming in because he wants to watch the squirrels.

Two more ACEO's, I am however working on a Cheetah in oil, a Snow Leopard in acrylic and several felines for the SOFA exhibition later in the year.

SOLD

You can bid for the cat here.

Meerkat in acrylic, Finished

We took Juno to his first show in four months today (I know I thought I was going last weekend, but I got it wrong)

We were really pleased when he won his class and then got Reserve Best Rough Collie Dog in Show.



When I came home I finished painting my meerkat. I enjoyed the acrylic although I have a canvas drawn out to give oils another go.
I do intend to do a larger painting of meerkats, I find their funny little faces very appealing.
And yes, it is still raining.

A Meerkat in Acrylic

I've been totally absorbed in painting ACEO's during this last week.

The following two are on drafting film, using coloured pencil and acrylic.

Both these are available on eBay, the cat is now SOLDSOLD

This last one is on Arches Hot press watercolour paper using acrylic. I loved the way the meerkat was studying the sky, he/she stayed like that for quite a long time so I managed to take plenty of photographs.

And still it rains here in Yorkshire. My favourite walk is the 'stoat walk' (I call it that, because I sometimes see stoats at various points on it) but there is a dip in the lane just before it crosses the canal. This morning there was a lake in the dip, I sent Clinton ahead, but when the water started to reach his chest I called him back and we returned home. Trying to keep Juno's whites white for his show tomorrow is a little difficult to put it mildly.

At least it is good painting weather.

A Cougar or Puma ACEO

This is todays effort, a cougar, puma or mountain lion ACEO, again on drafting film but this time I painted the background with acrylics.
This ACEO is listed on eBay , it is now SOLD

Last night we were burgled, how could that happen with the canine gang, well I asked the said gang the same question.

We heard Rio start to give little wuffs about 2.15am, husband shouted at him, Rio carried on, husband got up and looked out the back windows, saw nothing so shouted louder. Two minutes later Clinton who sleeps in our bedroom started to growl, I got up this time and looked out the front window in time to see a car pulling away down the road. Eldest son collided with me as he had also woken up and seen someone creeping down the drive.

The front door had been opened, Roxie who sleeps behind the door had obviously welcomed the intruder with plenty of tail wagging, but Clinton and Rio had frightened them off. Tonight the door will be locked and Roxie will change sleeping places with Juno, who will definitely not welcome univited guests. Unfortunately he had been sleeping in the conservatory and missed the excitement, the other dogs had obviously told him about it though because he has been practicing barking all day today.

The thieves took a case of wine, a case of lager and a brand new drill from the garage, all I can say is I hope they have a headache.

A Tiger ACEO

I'm trying to maintain productivity but not neglect my marketing. Today I've selected the four images I hope to submit to the 2008 SOFA exhibition later in the year and sorted out my Crufts entry so I'm feeling slightly pleased with myself.

I've also created another ACEO, a tiger but this time on drafting film.

SOLD

The rain is continuing, leading to web foot syndrome among the dogs again, even the squirrels need waders to get to the nuts. The circular stones which form a path across my garden have been transformed into miniature bird baths and the pond has overflowed into the surrounding borders. I was reminded of the Amazon when I noticed my fish could now swim among the plants, I expect if it rains for much longer they'll probably be able to make it to the Amazon.

My friend recently tried to contact me on my mobile, which was as usual switched off. If I leave it on then I forget about it, and it either rings in the middle of important meetings or the battery runs down in the middle of the night. I'm not sure why batteries always expire in the middle of the night, I think they must work to the same timetable as in whelp bitches!. Anyway Clinton is terrified of the bleeping noise expiring batteries make, as soon as the first bleep happens he comes to me to be saved. This involves him jumping on the bed and wrapping himself round my head. Even when I stagger out of bed, find the phone and turn it off, the damage is done for that night. He insists that if he doesn't remain wrapped round my head, something on the floor will get him and he wont make it through the night. After about half an hour of large, heavy, very hairy male Collie round my nose I wonder if I will make it till morning, so that is why my mobile is never turned on.

Paper Supports

I finished my wolf, I think I might try a graphite study before I start my large painting.
The main paper supports I use are Arches Hot Press watercolour paper for coloured pencil and Mellotex for graphite.

Arches - this is a lovely smooth paper which takes a lot of layers but is a creamy rather than white colour. The paper is acid and chlorine free and available in 3 finishes, not, hot pressed and rough. I only ever use the hot pressed as I need a smooth finish.

Mellotex - this is a printers paper, very smooth, available in several weights and three different whites. As with Arches it is an archival, acid free paper. I understand it is only available in the UK.
I use the heavier weights in the ultra white as I like to leave the white of the paper for the background in graphite pieces.

I sometimes use coloured paper like Ingres or Mi Tientes, these are not as heavy as they are primarily pastel papers, so will not take as many layers.

Happy New Year

I would like to wish all my readers a very happy and peaceful 2008, a little late but I've just returned from spending a few days in Scotland.

I managed to take some wonderful photographs of four male European wolves which live at the Highland Wildlife Park in Kingussie.

I might not paint this one, I can't imagine him making a popular print.

I do intend to paint a scene with several wolves later in the year and as preparation I've started a small study in watercolour pencils.

I'm going to try to produce at least one small work a week and at least 18 larger pieces over the year so at least I've made a start.

I'm going to continue my art material series over the next couple of days before I return to the dreaded 'day job' on Monday.

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............

Art Materials - Part 1

I have found that people are curious about the supports I use for my work, in particular Drafting Film and Pastelbord. So I have decided to include a page on my website giving more information on the materials I use, but I thought I'd also do a blog post.

Although I have tried out many supports over the past few years I return to the same favourites:-

Arches Hot Press Watercolour paper or Mellotex for graphite

Polydraw Drafting Film for coloured pencil, or mixed media including acrylic

Ampersand Pastelbord for coloured pencil including Neocolor ll

Drafting Film, I use Polydraw double matt, 75 micron sheets. Polydraw is by West and is available as sheets or in rolls. It is described as a polyester drafting film with a high degree of dimensional stability.

I find its exceptionally smooth surface ideal for the detail I want to be able to produce. A sharp pencil point lasts for a long time on this surface. I can also easily airbrush acrylic backgrounds to produce a wonderful soft focus effect.

The one thing that you can't do on this surface is use a lot of layering, I've found 3 or 4 layers is about as many as I can manage.

If you make a mistake on Polydraw it is easy to correct, simply dampen the area and wipe off. I have even removed an airbrushed background, although that wasn't quite as easy.

I believe that an equivalent to Polydraw in the US and Canada is Mylar, and I know many artists use Mylar to great effect.

Here are a couple of examples of my work on drafting film. I have airbrushed all the background in the Rough Collie painting, in real life you can see how this pushes the subject forward.

In the Norwegian Forest Cat painting I have done the background entirely in coloured pencil, again a subtle effect but much more time consuming.

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

Things I'd like to find in my Christmas Stocking

1. Time, I never have enough of it to do everything I want.

2. Dog hair fixative, for the times when I do not want to wake up and find their fur coats on the floor.

3. Rose coloured glasses, to put on before opening the door to my eldest son's bedroom.

4. A treadmill for dogs, for the days when I would rather sit indoors with a glass of wine and watch them exercising themselves.

5. A ball that brings itself back to me, for the times when I've thrown it a huge distance and every dog runs in the opposite direction.

6. A towel that can dry 24 paws without any help from me.

I'm sure I can come up with a few more so please feel free to send me any of the above.

I have worked a bit more on my cat with the reflection.

A Christmas ACEO

I was planning this years Christmas card yesterday and liked the kitten I was drawing so much that I let him star in his own ACEO.

I added a mouse so he wouldn't feel lonely, and called it 'Waiting for Santa Paws'. It is coloured pencil and acrylic on drafting film.

My 2007 Christmas card is heading for 2008 if I keep getting distracted.

More Cats

I'm glad it's weekend, this has been one of those weeks that go from bad to worse.

I'm having a difficult time at work due to massive restructuring which is ongoing, so that has been on my mind all week.

On Wednesday I slipped on some leaves and hit my chin on a wall that kindly stopped me falling to the floor, but left me with a huge bruise and a bottom jaw that doesn't look to fit the top one.

Thursday we got Juno and Roxie ready for the show which takes place today. We got up on Friday to find most of Roxie's coat on the floor, she told me she was hot in the night so had taken it off. It is not worth taking either of them to the show as Juno is also slightly out of coat, so the hours spent getting them ready was wasted.

Also on Thursday my eldest son's drive shaft on his car rolled over and died. As he needs his car to get to University that took a lot of sorting out to ensure it went to the sick car hospital on Friday.

On Friday I had to have some routine blood tests, as I have had chemotherapy my veins strongly object to anyone even looking at them. They were even less impressed when the nurse told me she had forgotten her glasses, but not to worry she works mainly by touch. All I can say is that her touch let her down on this occasion.

But, Shred is finished and I'm working on a new cat on drafting film.

I used a lot of Neocolor ll on the fur under Shred's chin and then wet it so that I could get a nice slightly out of focus look. I am really impressed with how the Neocolour work so well with coloured pencil.

The other cat is mainly coloured pencil with touches of acrylic, I'm still thinking about how I'm going to do the reflection.

Update on Roxie and Shred

Not having included my collies for a while I thought I'd let you see how Roxie is maturing. She is practicing being a Pointer in this photograph while she does a spot of duck watching.

Rio had trotted on ahead to make sure we weren't in any danger of being kidnapped, he takes his brotherly duties very seriously.

On the art front, here is the update of Shred, at last he is almost finished.

Demonstrating for the UK Coloured Pencil Society

I spent Thursday and Friday at the Art Materials Live Exhibition held at the NEC in Birmingham.

I was demonstrating for the UK Coloured Pencil Society (UKCPS) and it was great fun. I talked myself hoarse early on the first day, and had to revive myself with large amounts of liquid refreshment, strictly non alcoholic as I was driving. The stand had several artists demonstrating, all very talented and quite diverse in approach, so people got a good idea of just what can be done with the coloured pencil.

I had two half finished pieces there, Shred the ginger cat on ampersand pastelbord, and one on drafting film. People were amazed at the finish you could get on the pastelbord and I got some really wonderful comments, if any of you read this, thank you for making my day.

I got so many questions on how to draw eyes and how to work on drafting film that on the second day I started a new cat. I started with the eye and showed people how to work by building up the layers, and then adding the final highlight to get the glassy appearance. I also did a little of the surrounding fur. I met several architects and graphic designers who found watching me work brought back happy(ish) memories of using drafting film.

The drafting film I use is Polydraw double matt, 75 microns in weight.

Here's what I drew plus a bit more that I added yesterday.

I also had my photograph taken with my work several times, even by one of the other exhibitors.

I really enjoyed my two days, I met up with some old friends, made some new ones and saw some stunning work.

The exhibition finishes today but I can highly recommend a visit next year to stock up on your materials and see some wonderful work. I know that as long as they want me, i will be back on the UKCPS stand.

Several people asked me about workshops or if I would do a DVD on drawing animals in coloured pencil, I will look into that after Christmas.

Painting a Miniature

My friend Katherine recently went to see the annual exhibition of the Royal Society of MiniaturePainters,Sculpters and Gravers. This reminded me that I had some Ivorine put to one side, so I decided it was time to have a go at my own miniature.

Ivorine is a manufactured imitation ivory with a white translucent surface. It is totally smooth and very easy to work on.

I wanted a change from cats so decided to paint a Chipmunk that I photographed in the Mount Ranier National Park whilst on holiday.

I think it's a Least Chipmunk but please feel free to correct me if I'm wrong.

I decided to use acrylics on the Ivorine and I'm using 4/0 to 10/0 brushes.

If you are interested the only place that I know to purchase Ivorine is from Polymers Plus, they are very helpful and have an excellent mail order service.

Book Review, Drawing from Line to Life by Mike Sibley

The Big Draw 2007 has been launched and during October over 1300 Big Draw events will take place throughout the UK.

In conjunction with the official events, Katherine Tyrrell has a new project on her blog which will run throughout October, The Big Drawing Book Review. (Just to make it clear, this project was initiated by Katherine and is not linked to the Big Draw in a formal way.)

Now I'm a bit of a bookaholic, I absolutely love books, so I'm going to try to review one of my drawing books each week during October.

I have to start with my absolute favourite 'Drawing from Line to Life'.

This book is a complete guide to drawing realism in graphite.

It covers materials, methods, techniques and three complete demonstrations, all by professional graphite artist Mike Sibley.

It is divided into 24 chapters which start with, From Line to Life Explained and end with, Putting it all Together.

In between are chapters on techniques such as Blending and Layering, Indenting, Negetive Drawing and Erasing Techniques.

Chapters on drawing various elements such as Ellipses, Textures, Reflections, Foliage, Hair and Features.

There are also three full length demonstrations, Charlotte (little girl), Clarrie (cat) and one featuring a puppy and many other elements from earlier in the book.

This is a large book with 625 illustrations in more than 280 pages, the printing is crisp and clear and the binding means that the book will open flat if you want to refer to it whilst drawing.

I absolutely love this book, but then I am an animal artist who loves to use graphite.

The simple step by step approach yet diverse information make it equally appealing to both the beginner and more advanced artist.

The book only covers graphite and will suit artists who like total control and to produce a high degree of realism in their work, it does not cover a more painterly approach to drawing. Also many of the illustrations are of dogs, or parts of dogs because that is what Mike draws, so there is less in the way of humans.

It is also quite expensive at £35.00, but everyone I know who has bought it, has been absolutely delighted and felt that it has improved their drawing. I know it has improved mine.

Katherine has devised a rating system, I have no hesitation in awarding this book 5 pencils:-

5 pencils - go out and buy this book right now if you have the money. In your opinion, an essential book for anybody seriously interested in drawing and/or learning more about drawing.

Links:-

Sibley Fine Art