German Shepherd

Drawn on Bristol Board approx size is 5x4 inches. I have wanted to draw a dog portrait for some time, so using a couple of great referance books Iv'e given it a go, I would still like to get a more realistic effect on the fur, but overall I'm pleased with the result.

Colobus Monkey finished ( for now)

Ive added another branch to balance the drawing, and at the moment I dont want to add any more to this, I think more branches would clutter the background, and shading it would make a mess, I may come back to this in the near future though.

Colobus Monkey

Ive really enjoyed this drawing, its one Iv'e had in my to do plans for a while, not sure how Im going to tackle the background, on the ref photo there are a lot of branches, I would use my artistic licence and chop some of them down, or do I just use differant shades of graphite to block out the white paper and try to make the monkey stand out?

African Painted Dogs

Just finished this large (for me) drawing of three Painted Wild Dogs, this is a montage of three photographs played about with on photoshop, to give me the bases for this drawing, the finished size is 10 x 5 inches. I watched a TV programme showing these dogs a few nights ago, and thought they would make a good drawing subject.

My Wife's first watercolour

As my wife doesnt have a blog I thought I would show this on mine. she has just started to try her hand at watercolour painting, she has had no training, and all her knowledge has come from reading books, in a former life she was a draughtswomen which still shows in the way she plans her pre drawing out. anyway I just thought I would publish this for her as I thinks it's a great first attempt and as always Im very proud of her.

Hummingbird

Not to happy with this one, but its done and I dont think that spending any more time on it will make me feel any better, so best to leave it as it is, its all experiance. finished size is approx 4 x 3.5 inches

Humming Bird WIP

A new WIP not sure how this one is going to turn out, I think I maybe should have cropped in a little tighter on the bird and left out more of the flowers etc, the bird itself is approx 1.5 inches square. not a good photographic reproduction so I hope further ones will be sharper.

Art Blog Award

I was very kindly and unexpectedly given an Art Blog Award by Teresa (thank you, Teresa!) who requests that I write seven things that I love and pass it on to seven other bloggers, sounds easier than you think, but here goes.

1. My Wife who is the love of my life.

2. My 3 Sons. Stepson and Stepdaughter

3. My Sisters and their families

4. Looking at great pieces of Art and wondering ''how did they do that''?

5. Being at a Pink Floyd concert and feeling the hairs on the back of my neck stand up)

6. Walking on the beach

7. Having a whole Malt Loaf to myself with cheese and pickled onions!!

Now the hard part picking seven other bloggers.

1.Tresses
2.Sheona
3.Nolon
4.Karie
5.Christine
6.Felicity
7.Sharon

Waiting for the Tide Revisited

I posted this drawing some time back, and the horizon has always been bugging me, it just didn't look finished off, so today I dug it out of my folder and added the distant rocks and Lighthouse, I also worked on soem of the shadows and edges, I feel a lot better now, it's often the case that if you come back to something after leaving it a while you see it with fresh eyes. let me know what you think.

Grizzly

As good as finished, maybe a little tweeking here and there, but it's so easy to over do it. I added the mountain and trees in the background to try and give a feeling of depth, they were not in my original idea, but it seemed that there was something missing and to much sky. still not happy with the way I have drawn the grass, but I hope to get that sorted when I attend Mike Sibley's workshop in May. comments welcome as always

My First Drawing

I found this drawing within the pages of a baby record book my mother kept. she very kindly placed my age on the bottom right hand corner, 3.5 years old! so its now 48.5 years old can anyone beat this do you still have your first drawing? I like the way I thought there would be air craft flying around at the same time as the cowboys.

Grizzly WIP

As the snow made it impossible to go out today, I started to work on the background, I hope when it's finished it will give the impression of the Grizzly walking along a mountain pathway, as usual the photographed image hasn't come out as well as the drawing, with any luck I may have this finished by tomorrow, the completed drawing will measure approx 6.5 x 4 inches, all comments welcome.

Grizzly WIP

Worked on the grass today using my Bible '' Drawing from Line to Life'' by Mike Sibley, isn't it annoying how some people can make things sound and look so easy to achieve until you try to put it into practice! thanks Mike I'll see you in May......

Grizzly WIP

A little more work completed today, not to happy with how the grass is working out, so will need to concentrate on that next time.

Grizzly Bear WIP

Iv'e been working a little on the detail, so thought I would post a close up, this detail doesn't show on the photograph I'm working from so I used a bit of imagination and guess work, I have lifted a lot of the dark areas with use of Blue Tack and then reworked that area of the fur, Iv'e also tried to define the grass's with negative drawing. any comments welcome.

New WIP

Started this new piece today, no title as yet, we dont have many Grizzly Bears in Nottingham so no local referance material to work from, I have included a shot of my drawing board as you can see Im working from a colour and a grey scale pic, printed from the computer neither are very sharp, but these things are sent to try us!

Chimp Finished

Almost didn't post this finished drawing, as I'm not happy with the results, but it's all experiance I suppose! the background didn't work out as I wanted, but I have to keep reminding myself that this is only my second drawing with CP's, size is 5.5 x 3.5 inches, so here it is and any comments, good or bad are welcome.

Chimp WIP

As you can see I have started on the background! and its making me realise just how much I need to learn about colour pencils, I want the background to be out of focus to push the chimp forward, apparently this is difficult to achieve with CP's ''Now you tell me'' I have also started to fill in the foreground twig and leaves which I want to be in focus as they are level with the Chimps face. On the good side I have found that the Blue Tack I use on my graphite drawing works to a degree on the CP's, this has been a great help on lifting the leaves and creating a few highlights. any comments and advice welcome.

Chimp WIP

A little more work has been achieved on this Chimp, Iv'e started on the background which I want to draw out of focus, easier said than done! I still have a lot to learn on how to apply the layers to get the effect I want, but practice makes perfect as they say.....

Chimp WIP

Ive been away working for the last three days so unable to post anything, I thought I would post a new WIP, as you can see Im trying the coloured pencils again, Im sure the more I use them the closer I will get to the effect I want.