Framed dog portraits in pastel
Been busy as usual, updated my website as you can see plus I now have a mini website on facebook but also forgot to post this pic of Zac framed. Now I look at it, I think I need to go back to darken his one ear a little as it looks unfinished rather than highlighted, back to the drawing board literally!!!
We’ve been very busy in the garden and as soon as the wonderful english weather cheers up I’ll be out there with my camera. Forgot to mention, you can also make a commission directly via my facebook website too, how clever am I!
Lion Painting, wildlife art
lion wildlife painting in pastel
I’ve been working away on this mammoth sized lion painting and have also reworked the background. I can see a few areas where I want to re-blend in the sky but for now it’s not distracting me too much from the lion itself so I have been getting on with it.
I was looking forward to a nice sunny easter break, especially after last week when it was so warm I sat out in the garden in a t-shirt and developed thousands of freckles but today we have had a deluge of snow and sleet for most of the morning, luckily nothing is sticking but it’s such a shock to the system, I had almost hoped to put my wellies away until autumn but they are now back in full usage to get around the woods and I have to say I’m very cold too. Very odd weather, which leads me onto my next news where I have booked to do a couple of shows later in the year, however due to the madness of the climate I decided to go in the craft tents incase a hurricaine took my tent away!!!! I will let you know whether or not there was space for me inside as these shows are probably booked up months in advance and I may yet be forced to take my own gazebo and set it up!
We have also planted both our polytunnels, rotovated all of the garden itself and are ready for the next season of veggie growing, as soon as we start getting some shoots and greens coming up I’ll take a couple of photos but as it’s so very very cold today, I’ll be staying in warming my little toes in front of the fire!!!!
Wildlife Art, lion painting in pastel
Seems I have forgotten my blog yet again, really very naughty and no excuse it’s just easier to update facebook and twitter so being lazy it fell by the wayside.
I won’t repeat all the news from my facebook page for fear of you all getting a little bored reading the same thing all over again!!!
Anyway, still awaiting the repair of my laptop, I may as well have sent it to Mars, not sure if it’s just the pace of life in the countryside but think I could build my own in the time it’s taking to fix it! Imagine if it were something really crucial! In the meantime, and starting to get paintings ready for the shows I will attend later in the year, I’ve been working on this lion painting which is a massive 24″ x 18″ and it’s taking lots of hard work to get anywhere!!! Still I’m plodding along slowly but surely and have also been finding out how to edit raw image files so hopefully the final shot of my portraits from now on will be a bit better, can you believe I’ve actually decided to improve my photo editing skills!?!
Zac, springer spaniel dog portrait in pastel
Pastel portrait of springer spaniel copyright www.artbykarie-ann.co.uk
The latest update of Zac’s portrait. I was hoping to have completed more than this but the rugby interrupted my attempts yesterday, how can you expect to work through three matches back to back!
Getting into details, the chest area has taken longer to work than the rest of the portrait put together, it was difficult not to get it too dark but then not to leave it too light so the details were missed out. I have taken this photo with a flash so it has meant some of the detail has been lost anyway but believe me there are thousands of pastel pencil strokes on there!
I’m off to a big dog event next weekend so I’ve been getting myself ready and organised which if you know me you would know to be a huge task!!!! Best get back to it then!
Springer spaniel dog portrait in pastel, Zac
springer spaniel in pastels
This is my latest piece with pastels, this being my beautiful Zac. Zac is now 13 years old and now has dog wheels as his back legs are quite weak. I cannot praise them enough as without them we wouldn’t still have him with us.
I like the speed of pastels but I felt I wasn’t getting as much fine details as with coloured pencils so I have tried to approach this portrait in exactly the same way I would have if I had been using coloured pencils and it has made a real difference. Pastels still are so much faster but they seemed not to have the definition and sharpness I like and I can almost say this looks like my coloured pencil portraits but has only taken a fraction of the time so at long last after a few trials and tribulations I think I’ve found the technique I like best, had to try lots of papers, lots of pencils and lots of techniques but think I’ll stick with this one for a while!!!
Collie dog portraits in pastel, Dal
framed dog portrait
A couple of updates, this is Dal’s portrait completed and framed ready for collection. Been a bit of a mad few weeks after our ceiling collapsed and the laptop blew up, nevertheless, it made me get on with some work!!!
Collie dog portrait in pastel
Slight change of plan as Maya the mexican hairless was due to be on the easel next but I realise I’m short of the pastels I need for her so until they arrive I’ve started work on Dal, the lovely collie I met in person and who was a sort of willing model when I had to take his photographs (he ate all of my biscuits I was using for bribes to get him to look at the camera!)
Terrier pastel dog portrait
This is the latest dog portrait I have completed and is to the furthest corner of the earth, good old Australia for a 60th birthday present. I’ve added a few in progress stages below and this was worked using pastel pencils on velour paper.
initial stage, adding light and darks to dog portrait
Pastel Dog Painting, Ziggy
Pastel dog painting, Ziggy
After a busy afternoon I have now 99% completed Ziggy’s dog portrait. This was completed using all pastel pencils, no sticks and on velour paper.
I’m now facing a crisis as I really like the effect the velour has when creating a furry subject but am not sure which surface to use in future as fisher 400 ensures a portrait can be completed at a vastly quicker rate.
I have also now purchased some pastelmat and hope it will be a mix of the two surfaces, allowing the speed of work on fisher 400 but with the soft surface hope it also creates a furry like appearance similar to velour, then I’ll be a happy bunny with the best of both worlds!
I am hoping to meet Ziggy’s human brother as technically the portrait was ordered by a son for his father of his father’s dog, if you get my drift, if not don’t worry too much!!!
Dog Portrait in pastel on velour, Ziggy
A better update than of late, this was taken late afternoon when there was a little natural light and it gives you a better idea of the colours at long last.
As you can see Ziggy is now starting to take shape and his face looks much more real and furry. This is only my 3rd attempt on velour and I think I now have a little more of an idea of what I’m doing, and it’s very similar to use pastels on velour than using coloured pencils as it’s all about building up layers to create depth. This has actually taken quite some time, I’m hoping because I’m still getting to grips with pastels at the moment otherwise the coloured pencils may be coming back out!
Did a little art shopping this week and bought a new set of pastel pencils, liked the odd stabilo carbothello I had as they feel really creamy and thought they could be nice to use on velour plus I ordered some pastelmat so it’s all up in the air at the moment as I’m trying it all out!
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