Black on Grey on White

Detail of portrait study Yeah! At last I can show you one of the drawings that kept me scribbling for most of May. Long days and long nights were on the menu as I scrounged hours,minutes and seconds wherever I could find them. Big thank-you to my friend and fellow artist Linda Shantz for her precious musical tips. She introduced me to Biffy Clyro (the best Scottisch band of the moment) & Mumford & Sons . These guys got me through the hours and dead-line stress with a good rythm in my stroke :D The result is "Ida". Ida is just gorgeous: a blue Weimaraner with the most amazing light eyes I have ever seen. The colour and texture of her coat were brilliant to draw, I guess simply because it is so out of the ordinary.(Miles away from curls and long hair ) Smooth shades of grey that transcend into darker values subtly but quite radically. Ida Pencil on Paper. 38x55cm Sheona hamilton-Grant. All rights reserved. Sold Ida's portrait is now hanging in Germany up North w

Time was shuffled around and re-arranged over the week-end to give my pencils a wee gap to add a few more bricks and muscles. Below the result of a few hours: a Clydesdale with an ever increasing chest and a wall with a new wonky bricks. Next update coming soon....

Due to big urgent commissions needing all my attention, weeks have gone by without Black on Grey on White featuring any WIP. So, it is with great rejoicing jubilation that I post the first steps in my new non-commissioned drawing: Bricks and Stones . The reference comes from my good friend & photographer Juliet Harrison . She spotted this Clydesdale while visiting Scotland last summer and let her camera record a wonderful vision. The piece is big and complex with strong contrasts in both light, shapes and textures, a great subject and an unusual composition. Masses to get my teeth dug into. "Bricks and Stones" Step 1 Tools chosen: Mellotex paper Derwent 2B & HB Staedler Clutch F & 6B The first step shows a few bricks who still need a big chunk of attention. I'm drawing them as they come, having only mapped out horizontal lines to give me guidance. They are still time consuming as I have to figure exactly how best to render them. A first darker layer is made in

Wilbur, bless him, decided to stay behind in April and "man" the studio. Personally, I'm convinced he got stage fright and wanted to blast out some way-out music and dance is socks off. Once across the border, his absence was noticed. Thankfully, while out hunting for last minute supplies, I bumped into Bernadette. Bernadette, lying along side tubes of oil paints and miniature canvases, caught my eye or did she wink? Whatever she did made me smile and continued to do so while sitting on my passenger seat as she tapped her wooden hand rhythmically to the Foo's. Wilbur has met his match. The doll is "mid-way mad". A few pics of her in action to prove it. She disappeared one quiet morning leaving her spot of choice (centre stage) to catch a few rays of sun. Bernadettes' spot of choice during the show: right up beside the gold medalist himself Rembrandt. I hunted her down, outside, saying hi to Paradox ( a statue created in 1993 in memory of