New wild cat drawings

Sunny Lynx Kitten 

This is one of the new pen and inks that I have been working on recently. 

I am so pleased with myself for managing to meet my self imposed deadline of three works in three weeks. 

The drawing in pen and ink is drawn on graphic film and the reverse has coloured pencil which shows through.

It is slightly different in style from my ACEOs because it is 6x4 inches. I was able to put more detail in and I had room to apply more colours to the reverse. 

I enjoyed this drawing. It is the third one. I have learned a bit by now. 

Portrait Commission Prize

Remember the Open Day at Nicoll's Dental Practice Penrith on Saturday 28th March

In Aid of the BEEP Fund

The last time I went for a check-up to my lovely dentist I arrived early and sat in the waiting room in the warm puzzling over the above poster. I hadn't heard of the BEEP Fund before, so when I went in the first thing I said was "What is the BEEP fund?" Well, when Mrs Nicoll explained that the Birkbeck Medical Group raises money for equipment that doctors need to take to serious accidents to save lives, I immediately said that I would like to donate a voucher for a portrait commission to be raffled at the open day.

Besides refreshments, lots of free samples and goody bags, there are great raffle prizes donated by patients and staff of the dental practice so don't miss out! I am looking forward to seeing the denture studio (and no I don't have dentures).

For more information phone Nicoll's Dental Practice on 01768 867399

Tiger miniature

 

Today I found time to scan the tiger miniature that I drew for my son and daughter-in-law Christmas gift. They saw it when it was unfinished. 
This is one of the ACEOs that I have done in pen and ink on graphic film so I can colour parts of the reverse. I enjoy doing these miniatures. This was the first time I have done a complex colour areas like the tiger stripes. In the past I have added simple colours to the reverse for simple decoration. Working on the stripes in reverse was a challenge. I suppose it was a bit like glass painting. I had to apply the colours backwards from a normal coloured pencil drawing. 
I plan to do some more tiger miniatures and I hope that I remember the lessons I learned from this one.

New plans

I have been building a new website for myself. I haven't uploaded it yet because I still need to do all the keywords and things. 

After not very careful consideration, I decided to use Blogger for my Artblog. It will make it easy to update. Perhaps I will upload new posts more often than in the past if I use such an easy platform. 

I am not going to delete the posts from my old website yet because I hope to be able to link to them. 

The software I am using to build my new website is Macaw. I like it very much. It produces very clean code and I have achieved exactly the simple look that I want. It makes responsive websites too. 

I hope that as the app evolves I will be able to produce my blog as part of my website. I could do it now but it would be complex to keep it in order as Macaw doesn't have folders yet. I am sure they will eventually. Hint hint!

I have other plans for the future. One is to put together a portfolio of equestrian art. I have been keen on that idea for a long time. Once I have a few more portraits of horses, I will make an equestrian art gallery on my website. For now horses are included in animals. 

My other plan is a very new one!

A new art gallery/coffee shop has opened locally. My friend twisted my arm to speak to the gallery owner. I wasn't expecting anything. It is difficult to exhibit portraits especially as once they are finished they are no longer in my possession.  But I took my iPad in to show my work. He liked the miniatures I have done of wild cats. I do them in pen and ink and then colour parts of the image. 

The trouble is that they are the size of playing cards and I think that is too small for a gallery. And I make them to give as presents to my daughters in law who both love cats. I just have one left which is the one above. 

So I spent the last two days going through my reference photos of tigers, lions,cougars and lynxes. I don't want to do them big. It would be too tedious to do a large pen and ink. So I will do some at 6 x 4 inches and see if the gallery will take them.