I'm starting drawing and painting classes in my art studio in Stannington

Made it to the short list for the Ken Bromley Catalogue cover competition

Yippee! I've made the short list for the Ken Bromley Art Catalogue cover competition, voting is free for anyone, you can see my entry here and vote for it:
http://www.artsupplies.co.uk/covercomp/

It must be true, I read it in the newspapers...

Good morning...

Good morning people onboard the spaceship Earth, travelling through the cosmos at unbelievable seeds, we do hope there is no turbulence today. The temperature outside (in space) is freezing, I advised that you stay within the confines of the surface underneath the protection of the magnetic ionosphere and enjoy the duty free heat of our local sun until we arrive at each of our own life destinations. A drinks trolley service will be along shortly serving peace, prosperity and happiness. Stronger beverages including war, crimes of humanity, chaos and general depressions are available on request. 

Thank you.

Picasso the painted Mustang(Acrylic)

Medium: Acrylic (Mostly Cryla) 
Paper: Acrylico Pittura Gold Pressed 400mg (185lbs) paper Size: 15.3/4″ × 13″ (40mm x 33mm) Duration: 6 hours over three sessions. 


Original For Sale

This is a painting I worked on whilst teaching a student, during a one to one painting session on my current painting techniques using acrylic paints. Really enjoyed painting this beautiful horse as there was a variety of bright colours involved in it's creation. I also showed my student how I used a palette knife to give me textures on the waters edge. I also found that as the colours are so rich, they really help one another to stand out against each other in the bright sunshine. Might return to doing more of these beautiful animals. This handsome chap is called Picasso, suitably apt name I thought. 

 
For the reference, I used a photo taken by the photographer John A. Wagner from Dinosaur, Colorado, who gave me his permission. Thanks John.

Commission Harry and Poppy

Just finished this double pencil sketch of Harry (a Scottie) and Poppy (a Shih Tzu), as payment for some building work a builder did for me. We both benefitted, me with the work done in my art studio and him with this sketch of his two dogs, which is a Christmas present for his good wife. 

I decided at the outset to sketch each dog inside it's own oval background, wasn't really sure if it would look OK, but it seems to work. The builder absolutely loved it.

Here are some WIP steps before the finished pieces:

Commission - Murphy

Medium: Acrylic

Paper: Stretched Canvas
Size: 20″ × 16″ (400 × 500 mm)
Duration: 6 – 7 hours

This is a commission, of a beautiful old Retriever called Murphy and the client specifically wanted Murphy (the name of the dog) standing full pose and on a black background. Here’s hoping the are happy with my attempt. I enjoyed this as it has been a while since I used a black background, that funnily enough was another Golden Retriever

Commission - Shorty

Medium: Acrylic

Paper: Stretched Canvas

Size: 30 x 40 cm

Duration 4 − 5 

This is a commission I've just completed in acrylics, using a decorators scraping palette knife, brushes and borrowed my daughters nail painting brushes (for those hard to get to whiskers LOL). 

Really enjoyed this piece as I got to play with the background with a big fat palette knife to dab strong greened, limes blacks and white, trying to achieve a christmas holly feel (not sure it works, but like the texture I got). The reference was a compilation of a couple of photos the client gave me as sadly, Shorty is no longer with us (this is a Christmas present for the clients wife) I played around with the head of one photo and the front legs of another and stitched them together in photoshop then just started painting. With me, whenever I paint (or sketch for that matter) I try and begin with the eyes, capture those little beauties and your halfway there! Anywhoo, it is off to the framers on Monday, hopefully the client will like the finished result.

Earth Mother

Medium: Soft Pastels
Paper: A2 Lightly Textured 180 gsm paper
Duration: 3-4 hours

This is a fairly quick soft pastel sketch I drew in tribute to that great western artist Howard Terpning. I’ve always loved his portraits of life in the wild west and especially how he used the native peoples of North America as his subjects.