Sketchbook in house 3

 

A4 sketchbook

Brothers and Best Friends - portrait painting - work in progress 3

In this session I roughly blocked in a background with shadows of the boys in the foreground.  The actual photo image I have of them is an indoor shot.  But I decided that a view of the River Thames near to where they live, would make a better painting.

During the next session, I'll begin to lay in tones to the figures.

Sketchbook in house 2

Another view looking from one room into another.  Interesting playing with angles and reflections.

Brothers and Best Friends - portrait painting - work in progress 2

I wasn't happy with the first drawing I did for this portrait last week, so I've prepared a larger canvas and started again.  This is much better I think.  The scale of the lower half of little Max is more correct, plus I wanted to include both boys full length.

I will show progress as I begin to paint in the next session.

Lady Love!

Some regular visitors have been asking about how Lady is getting along.  Just in case you missed it, here's a blog post going back to when we first found her on the mountain.  http://indigoblah.blogspot.com/2010/09/animal-art-and-rescue.html  And here's how she looked then ....

 Since then she has continued to get stronger and all her physical problems have been dealt with, while we tried to find a good permanent home for her.  She has had all her vaccinations and last week was spayed by Dr Dimitris.  She still needs to add some weight, which she is doing steadily but still quite slowly.  We can still see her ribs.

Lady has the most amazingly kind nature; her temperament is just about perfect and her personality is warm and loving.   So you won't be surprised to hear that we just cannot bring ourselves to part with her.  We love her very much and she is now a permanent member of the family pack! :)

Brothers and Best Friends - portrait painting - work in progress 1

I've been wanting to make this painting for months, but there never seemed enough time available to work it from start to finish.  So I've decided to do it over a period of time, in between other projects.  It could well take some considerable time, but it will be worth it in the end.  In the meantime, I shall post 'work in progress' images on the blog as it moves along.

These adorable little boys are our grandsons, so you can imagine how much this painting matters.

Sketchbook in house

I'm working in my sketchbook just now discovering different ways I can study looking from one space into another.  Today I closed the blinds where I was sitting so there was just enough light to draw, then looked through to the sitting area, which was filled with sunlight.  It made for some interesting shadows and reflections.

Memorial Pet Portrait

A lovely lady internet art client, who commissioned a couple of portraits some time ago and has since become a friend, made a request which set me in a quandry.  

Her little dog, Jake, a faithful companion for many years, came to the end of his life and she misses him so much.  She wanted his portrait painted.  And here's my problem.  The photo image she wants to remember him with is not great;  as you can see, very little of Jake can be seen in the middle of lots of ivy leaves.

 To be honest, under normal circumstances I would have been tempted not to accept the commission in this form.  But I know how much it means to this lady, so I explained the problems to her and my reservations,  and agreed to give it a try.

 ACEO 3.5 x 2.5"

Acrylic on mount board

I couldn't see any detail of Jake from the photo so had to work intuitively with a bit of additional visual information from the client.  I'm so glad now that I didn't give up on this.