ACEO - Golden Retriever

As I can't show you my current commision, I thought I would add a photograph of an ACEO I painted today of a Golden Retriever Puppy. I think i've probably said on here before about doing a series of popular dog breeds, and I have decided to do them ACEO sized and I can use them on greetings cards and maybe keyrings. I did think about doing some ACEOs and selling them, however I feel I will get more long term gain by using them on the cards and maybe as ACEO prints that selling the originals. Here is the puppy:

Happy Christmas!

Hope you all had fun and are now looking forward to 2008! Now I won't be spoiling any surprises I can show you some of the pet portraits I completed as Christmas gifts.



These two beautiful yellow labrador's pet portraits were commissioned as gifts for the owners Mum. They went to America. The top one is Lib, the bottom one Biscuit. Both are 10" x 12" graphite portraits.

These two are elderly ladies Whisky and Poppy. They are both Golden Retrievers, which are one of my favourite dog breeds. This portrait is 18" x 24" graphite.

These two are Penny and Harry who took me an embarassingly long time to draw! I find white dogs in graphite really hard to do - I am a bit heavy handed with my shading so find it very difficult to be gentle and keep my tones pale. I'm pleased with how they turned out though and thankfully so was the customer. It's a 16" x 20" graphite portrait.

Golden Retriever in Graphite

Here is my latest completed commision - a Golden Retriever in graphite pencil, size 8" x 10".

Golden Retriever take 2

I had another go at the Golden Retriever and am pleased with this second attempt. I've made the eyes and nose bigger and blended the colours a bit more. I also really like the expression - I think it's captured the 'smiley' look of a Golden Retriever. It's on Bristol Board paper which is very smooth and creates a lovely effect when I burnish the coloured pencils.

Golden Retriever - something different

I have been working on something a bit different today - I have been thinking for a while about trying a new style of drawing - something a bit cartoon-like and simple and quicker to do. Not instead of my detailed stuff, just as an extra - probably for the ACEO's so I had a try out today on a Golden Retriever picture:

It's only small, just over 4" x 3" and drawn with coloured pencil and a fine pen. I like the outline and I think it's recognisable but the eyes aren't level and both the eyes and the nose are too small, but other than that i'm reasonably pleased with it. By making the eyes and nose bigger I think this will add to the cartoon-like style as well. This time I drew the outline last, but ended up with some pencil lines showing so next time I will draw the pen outline before doing the colour. Watch this space for some more....