Black on Grey on White

His name was Johnny, Johnny Jo. His middle names: funny, silly, kind, stubborn, daft, sweet, fun, JJ... Sadly all his names are no more. Johnny passed away this summer leaving a wee hole in our hearts, a bundle of happy memories in our minds and a big very empty red bed. Johnny Jo 1996-2010 God speed Johnny...

Ascot is a rare view: the result of my tackling colour. He is drawn in graphite with a touch of coloured pencil and watercolour. Gayle Mason's ( Fur in the Paint ) explanatory post has been a tremendous help. Her post on drawing cat eyes put me on the right track and it went from there. Gayle is not only a real expert at rendering, beautifully, animals in mixed media but is also very generous in explaining her process. Digging in my heels and "just" going for it with lots of trial and many errors have been "what it took" . I'm happy with the (almost)final result, the colours are discreetly present, there is depth and the portrait is faithful to my style. (I will put the portrait out sight for a few days and only then bring it back out to make any adjustments and tweaks before signing, spraying and framing.) I only hope I have trialed and "errored" enough to be able to do another: Joris (Ascot's brother) has also been commissioned...

Here they are, two peas in a pod, cheeky, tweaked and framed.   Basti and Titus have been approved and will be making there way off to Germany. Kept my pencil away from them over the week end (most of you have no doubt noticed the revamped blog.... This is a direct result of not allowing myself to go back too soon to tweak). Hope you like the new look I've given my "Black on Grey on White".  So: spent today, tweaking and polishing a few areas, scanning and recording all info for my database. To get a clean and a web perfect image of my work  I took two individual scans (300 dpi ) of the drawing.  I then I joined them and cleaned the new image using  Photoshop Element s.   I have this Photoshop version on trial for the next 27 days.  It's good.  Actually, I am pretty sure I will be purchasing it. It seems to fit the bill perfectly.  Between you and me, I am quite chuffed as it is a fraction of the price of the full blown Photoshop (of which I would only end up ...

Here they are: pretty much finished. I spent another 4-5 hours on Basti. Working on his ear and teeth mainly and achieving a little more shape to his head and nose. The result so far is quite OK. Now I put the drawing out of sigh. Not seeing it for a couple of days means: fresh eyes, being able to instantly pick out any mistakes, sternghten the weaknesses and/or "not so strong"patches. During this time (of absence) I contact the client(sending them a scan for their approval), get the paper work done, process the commission (size, medium, date...) into my database, clean the scan, organise the framing and finally publish it to my portfolio website. Here for your viewing is a raw (dirty) scan of Basti and Titus. The portrait will still be tweaked I am sure of that.(I can allready see a few spots!) Off to find a nice safe place for it hide for a few days. Have an excellent week-end!

After reaching a bit of standstill on Monday, I carried on by starting with the eye on the second Jack Russell . Basti is much darker, has slightly bigger and darker eyes as well as a straight ear. For the eye I sketched it out with a 2B, drew the pupil in using a 5B and I went from there. When drawing eyes I find it very important to keep picturing them in my mind (how I remember them)as opposed to what I see in the reference photograph. It keeps them real . This true for every feature but just a tad more so for eyes: they make or break a portrait ! The pencil used for the darker areas was my clutch filled with Cretacolor 3B. I only let go of it in order to pick up my 2B to draw the darker shading of the tongue. At the end of this phase I have probably clocked up another 12 hours (give or take a few minutes!) The final stretch is just around the corner...will try and get it posted for the week-end. Thanks for watching, p.s: questions and queries are of course very welcome, I realis...

Following to my last posting, here's how things are looking after a good long session today. Third stage of work in progress. In today's session I focused on: completing the eye . Still needs darkening and tweaking.  This will be done at the end. straightening out the nose , loads of squinting, darkening and measuring involved. Do not enjoy drawing noses as much as I could. giving Titus a tongue  (with quite a bit of detail), I used a 2B (dark areas) and F pencil and giving shape to his nose, mouth and side of his face using a 3B pencil to map out the darker areas.   To be very honest, I have come to a stand still... Physical reasons: neck is a bit too stiff and brain in need of a break. Time reasons: basically run out of it. Technical reasons: missing too many tonal and value clues. Titus's portrait and pose will need to be compared to the rest of the portrait.   This is a double portrait.  Yes, Titus has a brother Basti and he is to be portrayed along side of him.  (He...

I mentioned detailing the technical aspects of this commission. Well, seeing as it is the week end and a very sunny one at that I would illustrate a few technicalities with a photo rather than ramble on and keep you away from enjoying the sun. My important working tools chosen for this drawing(as seen in photo) are: Paper: Winston and Newton 200g, smooth surface Pencils: Derwent H, 2B, & 4B                Clutch Staedtler Mars 3B (2mm) Blue Tack Bullet pencil sharpener and clutch sharpener Glasses  and  very importantly coffee (has to be out of one of my three favorite mugs...!) These allow for a good few hours of drawing and recreating a chosen subject. The second step in this portrait was working out the second eye. Focusing on getting the expression right before going further. I do this by using all my reference photographs. I know Titus which makes it so much easier to know what to look for. Shading and darkening still needs to be done but for now the initial feel is right.   N...

Studio spring cleaned, exhibition in Windsor under way, Blog updated and reorganised (ok so this bit of the week took a wee while...still learning the ropes), sunshine still here with the weekend ahead and a new commission under way. Everything coming along pretty smoothly (unbelievable). Will post all the technical details of my new drawing with the result of a new day's work in a little more than 24 hours from now... Right now, off to hit the pillow been a busy week. Sleep tight.