Transition Period

'Poppy'

Next week I fly to Canada for almost three weeks so my posting will continue to be infrequent until the beginning of September.

When I took early retirement at the end of March I thought I would spend far more time on my art which would include posting to my blog. I have spent more time on my art but it has mainly been behind the scenes marketing. The number of completed pieces I have produced has not been great and I have missed more deadlines than I ever did when I was juggling working and art.

I've also felt that I had little to post about, and the days I was going to post I've left it until I was too tired.
However on the positive side things I have done are:-
Set the wheels in motion to exhibit at two or three large Agricultural shows in 2011
Joined the members of Living Heritage craftsmen and committed to attend the Cheshire Game Fair with them at the end of August
Created and produced a 2011 calendar which is already selling well
Catalogued my prints and cards and made sure I have sufficient stock to avoid any future marathon printing sessions.
Had one of my images included on the 2010 Society of Feline Artists Brochure (I'll show you in my next post)
I'm treating the last few months as a time of transition and not worrying over what I have or haven't done. It's been hard for me to switch from the daily challenges I had in my job which involved a great deal of responsibility to just managing myself.
But I think I'm getting there, I've a lot of ideas for future drawings and paintings and posts for my blog and am quite excited with how 'Poppy' is turning out.
I've decided to continue sporadic posting until the end of August and then return with a bang in September.
I hope you all have a wonderful Summer (or Winter, depending on where you live)

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.

Black Cat ACEO

'Colours of Black'

To bid click here.

I decided it was about time I created another ACEO.

I had fun with this one using various pink, blue and purple coloured pencils to create the black fur.

Cat in Graphite

This is one I started a long time ago however the deadline for completion has crept up on me and I need to finish it this week.

I've been busy away from art over the last week.
I visited the Great Yorkshire Show on Tuesday which is the largest agricultural show in the UK and a really great day out.
I want to draw some cows and sheep in the future and there were many stunning specimens to choose from. I also took some very nice photographs of a Sea Eagle who will make an appearance at some stage in a drawing or painting.
Yesterday it was our eldest son's graduation which involved many proud parent moments.
But I'm back at the drawing board, at least for today.

Portrait of a King

"Portrait of a King"

Graphite on mellotex paper.

I made my deadline with a whole night to spare.

I need to deliver this tomorrow, keep your fingers crossed it gets juried in to the exhibition.

How Not to Create a Calendar

The images for my 2011 calendar.

I thought I would share the lessons I've learned during the process of creating my calendar.

Decide before starting how you are going to print your calendar.

I decided after I'd finished creating that it would be more cost effective to have the calendars printed by a company specialising in litho printing. My printer is a large format Epson with 8 colour cartridges more suitable for giclee printing soI decided it would be rather expensive to print calendars using it.

I found a company that offered what I wanted at a good price. However I then had a huge problem as they wanted each page as a print ready Pdf file. Of course I hadn't used Publisher which meant I know very little about the embedded fonts, my colours were in the wrong mode and I hadn't considered having a bleed area. I decided that rather than start again I would print them myself and make sure for my next calendar I'd get it right from the start.

If you are going to bind the calendars yourself make sure you select the equipment suitable for the task.

I already have a plastic comb binder but thought calendars would look better using wire so I ordered one.When it arrived it was tiny, plastic, and only had the capacity to punch 8 x 70gms sheets of paper at a time. What. I was using 170gms paper and 100 calendars would be 1400 sheets (front and back plus 12 sheets) You do the maths and decide how long that would take. So back I went, read the specifications in full and bought a heavy weight model. This one weighs so much I can just move it around but it easily punches the whole calendar excluding the back at one go.

Quality check the first sheet when you change months.

I left the printer happily printing 100 sheets to find when I returned that I'd used a different font for March so they all need reprinting.

But I have now assembled my first calendar and despite all the set backs along the way I'm really pleased with the end result.

2011 Cat Calendar by Gayle

I've been designing a calendar for 2011. Actually I realised I had enough cat images to create two calendars, one in a portrait format, one in a landscape. Putting everything together in the right format has not been easy.

I now need to create a front page and then bind the pages, that sounds like fun.

I'm hoping to have the finished product ready for the cat show I'm having a stand at in a couple of weeks, fingers crossed.

Ragdoll Cat in Coloured Pencil Continued

I've started adding the dark background which makes the pale fur really stand out.

I've spent time over the last couple of days getting my garden in shape and I can tell you it's been fighting back. The weeds resist all attempts to remove them while the plants leap out if you look at them and then lie gasping on the surface.
I cleaned the small pond and found I have gained two fish which I've never seen before and have no idea what they are. They are the shape of an orf but black with a little white on the head and slightly barred across the back, about 3 inches long. The only fish I've ever put in that pond are Blue and Golden Orf, Goldfish, Sarasa Comets and long ago I had a couple of Dace.
I think Rob has lost his Sturgeon which lived in the big pond to the Heron, I haven't seen it for a few days and I have seen the Heron visiting in the early mornings.

I'll try to photograph my mystery fish and maybe someone can enlighten me as to what they are. They are much more timid than the other fish though.

Ragdoll Cat in Coloured Pencil

This is my latest commision, a stunning Ragdoll cat. I'm drawing her in coloured pencil on Fabriano Artistico Hot Press watercolour paper in extra white. The photograph is a delight to work from, it really is a pleasure of a commission.

Patchings Art Festival 2010

I worked on the Cavalier King Charles Spaniel during my four days exhibiting at the Patchings Art Festival. She is approximately 12 x 10 on Fabriano Artistico Hot Press Watercolour paper in extra white.
My friends Katherine (Making a Mark) and Vivien (Paintings, Prints and Stuff) have each done a review of their impression as visitors to Patchings. Click the links to read what they thought.

I was there as a first time exhibitor and returned home after 5 days, tired, but glad I took part.

I met some old friends and made some new ones, and feel I helped some beginners to coloured pencils get started.

During the first two days a lot of the visitors belonged to art societies and had travelled by coach to the event. Many of these people were attending the workshops, stocking up on their art supplies and watching the artist exhibitors demonstrate. For next year I aim to have expanded my step by step collection as I felt this was an area I could have developed more. Regular readers to my blog will know that I spent so long printing that I simply ran out of time.

The second two days, Saturday and Sunday, there were less art society visitors and I did better with selling my prints.

Although some of the exhibitors had a very successful show there was widespread feeling that there was less money being spent this year. In the current economic climate that came as no surprise.

It was obvious that Patchings is a very well run Festival which is attended by many hundreds of visitors who come back year after year, I hope to do the same.

Amur Tiger Continued

I'm still printing although I did sneak outside for a little while today to enjoy some sunshine.

Progress is still slow but I need to have him finished by the end of the weekend.

Progress is Slow

I am still printing so drawing has been almost non existent, however I am slowly going in the right direction with the tiger.
I wanted an image to put on my 'About Me' brochure for Patchings so I got my son to take a hand rather than a head shot.

I've also been doing a stock take today and have decided to offer a couple of my original cats for sale.
'Black and Gold', to bid click here.

9 x 7 inches coloured pencil on black colourfix paper.

Graphite Lion Continued

After printing hundreds of fine art cards ready for Patchings Art Festival I had a break and went back to my lion.
How can you tell I'm struggling with the fur in front of his ear?

Making a Captive Animal Wild

One of my pet niggles is seeing a really nice painting of a wild animal with a background that makes it obvious the reference material has been taken in a zoo. The number of lions, tigers, giraffes, meerkats etc that I've seen painted with a background of vegetation not native to the animal is amazing.
I know this might not matter to some people, it's just something I don't like.
So if my reference is of a captive animal I try to incorporate a background consistent with the animals natural habitat using the following steps:-

1. Make sure I know what (if any) subspecies the animal is as this might affect the range. For instance the tiger I'm currently drawing is an Amur Tiger (Panthera tigris altaica) I know the scientific classification doesn't matter but I have a particular interest in the classification of mammals dating back to my University days, sad I know :(
2. Have a look at the range of the animal and if there's a choice decide on the habitat I'm going to use.
3.Decide what sort of background (if any ) I want to incorporate.
4. Using my reference books, DVD's and the internet look at as many photographs of my chosen area I can find until I feel comfortable with the setting.

I took the photograph of the Tiger at a Wildlife Park in the South Lakes, hopefully I can add some vegetation more appropriate to the Russian Far East.

Tiger in Mixed Media

I'll post a progress shot of the lion tomorrow; it's almost finished.

I'm also working on this tiger in coloured pencil, acrylic and watercolour, approximately 12 x 8 on Fabriano Artistico.

I'm still busy printing cards and prints ready for Patchings Art Exhibition, I could do with each day being 48 hours long at the moment.

Drawing Animal Hair

I'm starting work on my next demonstration and by popular request it will be a 'how to' about drawing animal hair using coloured pencil.

So I sat down with my reference photographs, my paper and pencils, Adobe InDesign to use for the layout of the scans, and ground to a sudden halt as I realised animal hair is much too wide a subject for one step by step.

For a start do people want long hair, short hair, curly hair, wiry hair, fine hair, course hair? Then there is black hair, white hair, tabby hair, flecked, tipped, the list goes on. My basic stroke making stays the same but I do use slightly different things depending on both the type and colour of the hair.

So I'm going to break the subject into bite size chunks then people can pick which demonstrations(s) they are interested in.

My aim is eventually to offer a 1 day workshop on either drawing a dog or cat portrait in coloured pencil.

I plan to have them ready for sale at Patchings in June and from my website around the same time.

I also hope to have worked out the details on the workshop by early June.

Watch this space for updates on my progress.

Graphite Lion Continued

I've continued working on the lion. I decided to work some of the darker tones in the mane so that I could decide how light the blond fur should be.
My card stand arrived today and I'm very pleased with it. It was easy to assemble, freels strong, rotates smoothly and will hold at least 60 different designs.
It will look far more professional having my cards displayed in a stand rather than spread out on the table.

Two ACEO's, Lion and Cat.

To bid click here.

To bid click here.

I've had another busy day printing so I finished two ACEO's.

The lion is on Fisher 400 pastel paper, the cat is on Uart 800 premium sanded paper.

I have ordered a floor standing card stand so that I can display my cards to better effect at the shows I plan to attend. It is a collapsible, rotating model, keep your fingers crossed it is easy to put together. Cody's in season and Rio and Clinton have become singing dogs so my brain is frazzled and will not be able to cope with anything complicated.

I'll post a photograph once it's all set up.

Graphite Zebra

To bid click here.

This is another ACEO from one of my photographs, watercolour and graphite on Mellotex paper.
I put an indigo watercolour wash down first then worked over it in graphite. Mellotex paper is totally smooth and very white and was a pleasure to work on.
I'm thinking of doing a bigger pece featuring one or more zebras.