Here are shown various commissions in different media, giving an idea of how I put together a piece. Each of these pictures are sent to the commissioner, to show them how their work is progressing, and I wait for their approval before progressing any further.
This is the layout for an acrylic on canvas, showing the brief outline of a springer retrieving a pheasant. The springer, Ben, a much loved working dog, sadly had to be put to sleep, and the owners wanted a portrait of him doing what he loved best. The piece is being put together from several photographs.
Here, part of the background has been put in, and I've tested painting in a few silver birch trees, for the commissioner to see what they would look like, and if that is how they would like the background.
The rest of the background colour is now in, using a process called stippling, with a hard bristled brush, dabbing the paint and mixing it in on the surface.
More silver birch trees added, as I walk my dogs in a birch wood every morning the background woodland has been inspired from memory.
And the final detail of the birch trunks, with parts of them fading into the background, the next stage will show some stippled foliage.
A hint of stippled foliage, and the main body of colour onto the spaniel's head, starting to show the shadows and highlights.
This is the initial layout for a chalk pastel portrait on cream paper of a staffy, called Chippie. The layout sketch in charcoal gives them an idea of how the portrait will appear on a sheet of A3 paper, although I ensure the edges are slightly within the actual area I will work on; this is because you can only remove so much pastel and charcoal using a pastel eraser, and so to keep the paper as clean as possible, particularly with such a light colour, I will work out to the final edges of the portrait.
Here we have the first colours added, a salmon pink and yellow ochre, to give the lighter sandy colour of Chippie.
Having worked in the salmon and yellow, I've then added some grey, which will also need to be worked in.
Here I've added some hard black pastels, and because of the yellow, this will mix in slightly green, and so I've added a nice deep red chestnut brown to counteract this effect. I've outlined the ear a little clearer so that I don't work over into any areas that should remain free of colour, and I've put the background black onto the muzzle which looks very stark initially. With chalk pastels, I add the shadows and then work in the highlights, it has always worked better for me this way round, giving a feeling of shape and structure to a portrait.
This photo shows the current stage of the portrait, alongside the photograph I'm working from, there is a lot more colour mixing to go on, and another round of adding finer shadows and highlights, before starting to put the real detail in, including Chippie's lovely expression in his eyes.
This photo shows an updated outline, pushing out towards what will be the final outline, and checking measurements before starting to put in some real detail.
And this picture, shows more detail starting top left, as always, so that I work without reaching over finished detail, with the risk of smudging the portrait. There is some more work to do to his ear, before moving on to his fore head and face.
A little further along, making sure that I push the work out to the correct outline, as it is virtually impossible to remove pastels once they're down, I always make sure I work within the finished outline and push the work out to the correct outline as I'm going along....
Here the portrait is shown alongside the photograph, and you can see the colours and shading are starting to fall in place
This is the portrait approaching completion, all the detail is there, any work from this stage will be tidying up and fiddling to get the detail right
This is the final portrait of Chippie, with all the pastel dust removed and any details tidied up before sending off to the owner, who has received the portrait safe and sound, and is thrilled with it, as is, apparently, Chippie!
This is the initial layout for a watercolour on board, portraying the faces of four different horses.
And here, the first colour layer has been added to the faces, giving an idea of the different colours and shapes.
Work has begun on the horse top left, adding more layers and putting in detail. I've also started to work on the horse top right, moving inbetween each portrait to allow layers to dry thoroughly.
The horse top left is taking shape, and I am slowly working in the layers on the other portraits. I've used masking fluid to keep the white markings clear on two of the portraits, and for the whiskers on the paint horse.
The horse top left is complete, and the paint horse is progressing well, I've also started working in the darker layers on the horse bottom left.
The paint horse is now complete, and I've removed the masking fluid to put in the detail for her marking on her forehead. Work is progressing nicely on the bay, and I've begun layer work for the chestnut, bottom right.
This is the final portrait, masking fluid was removed for the bay and the detail of the marking put in. The chestnut has a lovely sheen to it's coat, which is hopefully shown in the way the watercolour layers have come together. The recipient was thrilled with their surprise birthday present, and I was pleased to meet her when I went down to a SSAFA charity day at Cannock Chase, where I also got the chance to meet two of the horses.
These are two acrylic portraits ordered as a surprise birthday present, both on chunky canvas (20" x 16"), this shows the layout stage, with a grid in place as an aid to ensure the image is transferred in the correct proportions from the photographs.
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| Springer spaniels on a decorative bench, layout stage |
Acrylic portrait of a horse in a menage at the layout stage |
At this stage the background colour and some of the shading and highlights have been put in
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| Background work on the spaniel portrait put in, details, highlights and shading to go |
Background colour on horse put in, lots of work to do to get the menage texture, before adding details |
And these are the final portraits, many hours have been spent putting in all the detail, and getting the highlights and shading right. The portraits were delivered in time, and were received enthusiastically!
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| Final acrylic portrait of the spaniels sat on an ornamental bench |
Final acrylic portrait of the horse in the menage |
This is the layout for a watercolour, this particular piece is being done onto board, I also work on cartridge paper, pressed cotton and watercolour paper.
Here, after an initial wash of colour has been added to the portrait, I've started putting in detail to the nose, and up onto the muzzle. There will be more colour wash to add to areas of the portrait before adding further detail, to give indications of areas of shadows and define the structure more clearly.
This shows the portrait set up to work on with the photograph, which, printed out A4 is quite low resolution, and so I am using a magnifying glass to see as much detail as possible, to put into the watercolour.
This picture shows the portrait as it is from the photograph, the dog has what appears to be an eyebrow, going down over his eye.
This photograph shows the detail of the eyebrow, which has been left in place awaiting confirmation from the commissioner that they want this as part of the portrait.
F
ollowing confirmation from the commissioner, work has taken place to put in the detail of the eye, without any eyebrow, the photograph has picked up on a feature that isn't normally there, and the portrait is to be done without it.
This photograph of the portrait along side the original photo, shows the comparison between the two, the photograph is quite bleached and extra colour has been pushed into the portrait, to ensure it looks as the commissioner wants.
And this is the final watercolour, all that's left, is to add my signature following approval from the commissioner.
This is the layout sketch for a detailed portrait of a chocolate Labrador, in chalk pastels on cream paper, to give the commissioner the first idea of how the photograph will look translated onto a sheet of A3 pastel paper.
After the layout sketch, the first colour layer is added, and some shading and highlights have been mixed in, giving some depth and shape to the structure of the face.
Further colour, shading and highlights have been added, including a dark maroon mixed in around the corners of the eyes, and on the nose and chin, and the eyes have been drawn in roughly, to show the shape and position.
More detail has been put in, working from top left, and the portrait is starting to take shape. The eyes have more detail, and there is more colour work and shading around the muzzle.
Even more detail has been put into and around the eyes and nose and the portrait is starting to come to life.
More highlights put in, and more colour, continually comparing to the photograph to make sure that the facial structure and expression are correct.
The detail is starting to show around the muzzle and nose, a lot of small bits of colour, shade and light have been put in to give the texture and shape. As well as small detail, the eventual outline is being pushed out, I put the outline in, slightly inside where it will eventually be, as it is so easy to smudge and mark the pastels as you are working. There has also been a lot of work cleaning pastel dust off the pastel paper. The portrait is really starting to come together, and will hopefully be finished within a few days.
Yet more detail put in on the ear to the right hand side of the portrait, as well as some work put in on the neck. The highlights in the photograph are very strong, so I've worked on softening them a bit, and have started to put some work in softening the edges to give the effect of fur.
We are just about there now, perhaps a little bit more softening to do, and the final touch will be to add whiskers to Milo's portrait.
At this stage, only small but detailed adjustments need to be made, softening some of the highlights a little further, feathering out the edges of the portrait to give the texture of fur, including where there are folds of skin. Once I'm happy with the final piece, and have got approval from the commissioner, the whiskers can be put in, which really do set the face off, and here we have the final Milo, the original is now on the way to the owner, and I will bite my fingernails until I hear it has arrived safely and that they are happy with it.
This particular sketch in pencil, was done from a photograph I took of Indie and Tau, when Tau was a young pup. Indie was resting her head on Tau, while they were both 'Asleep in the Washing' - the image has gone on to be a popular card, and is also available as a limited edition print. It is one of my favourite pencil sketches of the two of them, and the final piece can be seen here.
The subject for this pencil sketch has also been used as a chalk pastel. The mare in question, Maisy, is used as garron, and has her foal by her side in the chalk pastel study, which can be seen in the equine gallery here.
Of course by far the most sketched subject in my sketchbook, are working dogs, and I am lucky to have a supply of good photographs to work from, that I use to practise and develop the drawing, before setting it out to portray in a more serious style. This first image, went on to become the portrait of a springer bitch 'Windswept Springer', which has made a popular greeting card as part of the Gundog Pencil Study set. The final piece, 'Windswept Springer' can be seen here.
This image started out as a very brief outline sketch of a Labrador dog retrieving a grouse. The image has been used as the logo for Tarimoor Art, as well as being used as one of the popular Gundog Pencil Study greeting cards, as a limited edition print, and will hopefully be available as one of a set of bone china mugs, exclusive to Tarimoor Art, in the near future. The final piece, entitled 'The First Grouse', can be seen here.
