Pet Portrait update

Here is an update on Vada's pet portrait. I have now finished her, I just need to complete the pile of logs she is led on and then her portrait will be completed.

Vada

Here is the latest update on the pet portrait of Vada, a beautiful black cat. Her portrait is in graphite, which is one of the best mediums for portraits of all black pets.

Ruth and Rosco

This Pet Portrait is a bit different from usual and a first for me. It includes the pet's owner. I was originally contacted to produce a pet portrait of Black Labrador Rosco, then was contacted again by my customer who explained that unfortunatley Rosco had just died and it was felt a portrait including Rosco and his owner Ruth would be more appropiate in the circumstances.

I am actually really excited about doing this and i have a lovely reference photograph to work from. It's not very bright, as it was starting to get dark when I took the photo but it gives you an idea. I've started the shading very lightly and left my grid lines in where the pencil will be dark and cover them up. I'm working from two copies of the photo on this one, I had to lighten it considerably to get some detail on Rosco so I have a super lightened copy for the dark bits and the original for the lighter bits and hopefully will manage to combine them to produce something good! Anyway - her they are, Ruth and Rosco:

No more Christmas commissions

I have decided to close my waiting list to any orders required before Christmas. I was thinking today at work that I could probably manage one or two more on top of my current list, then came home to find two orders in the post from the same customer and an email order form. I was just sorting those out - doing deposit invoices and adding them to my waiting list spreadsheet when another customer called to confirm a go ahead on an order discussed a couple of weeks ago. So - 4 commssions ordered in one day! That's a first.

Last year I was still accepting orders at the end of November and ended up rushing in the week leading up to Christmas and i'm not doing that this year. I shall be organised. I have 11 pet portraits to comlpete between now and Christmas which is plenty, so there should be lots of artwork to add on here in the coming weeks.

If you were thinking of ordering a portrait for Christmas I do supply Gift Vouchers as an alternative.

Hello!

Hello, just thought i'd better post on here so if any readers are still reading they know i've not died!

Basically, i've been doing very little in the way of artwork recently that I can show on here. I have been working on a commission for a Christmas present that is taking ages and I've done a bit on vada the cat's portrait, however it's such a small amount an update would be a bit pointless! I've been doing loads of extra hours at work and I also have baby rats that were born 4 weeks ago, so the rats have been taking up an incredible amount of time - I have three separate groups to free-range at the moment and try to let them out for at least an hour each! But don't worry - very soon me and the 'vermin' are moving out to a studio, which means they can come out while I draw. The studio is a section of our workshop/shed/garage that has been partitioned off. It has two windows and central heating. Steve is currently putting up shelves and building me a desk and I am painting a rat cage. The room has been painted - it's a very pale, girly pink and I'm looking forward to having my very own space where I can pile up rubbish everywhere without Steve moaning at me. I'm planning on putting up photos and posters on the walls - hmmm, I've got an Orlando Bloom one somewhere.

My waiting list is growing - I now have six commissions:

• A birthday gift of a lab and his owner (required mid Nov)
• A welsh cob (required early Dec)
• Two German Shepherd Dogs (required mid Dec)
• Vada, black cat (started)
• Christmas surprise commission (started)
• A Terrier cross - Taylor

My plan is to get Vada and Taylor's portraits done first as neither of them have completion dates and I am very bad at getting stuff done without a date looming over my head. The lab will get done alongside these and all three will be finished by mid November. That then leaves me free to do Christmas commissions.

So now you know what i've been up to and what i'm going to be up to and hopefully there will be some portraits to show you soon.