Cat...

Just completed this commission - it's a surprise for someone who has had a very rough year and I am hoping it will do the business and cheer them up.  Drawn using Derwent Drawing Pencils and Coloursoft Pencils on pastel paper.

I am now free for the first time in months to paint what I want to paint...now to find some inspiration!
 

Latest Pet Portrait...

I have been busy over the past couple of weeks, just nothing to show here really.  However, I have just finished this commissioned double pet portrait.  I have used Derwent coloured pencils as usual on coloured pastel paper.

The big news is that after only a couple of months on the hospital waiting list, I have been scheduled to have my first cataract operation in a fortnight.  I started developing a cataract in my left eye several years ago - early as I am only in my fifties - and then was told after a couple of years that one was developing in my right eye as well.  Initially they did not bother me, but over the past year I have struggled to see in the evenings when working under electric light, have not been able to drive at night because the cataracts cause the lights to refract weirdly, and whites are starting to look beigey-pink.  Not good when you are an artist by trade!  Thankfully I have a brilliant optician who understood completely my distress and who asked my GP to refer me to a specialist.  The specialist listened to my litany of woes and put me straight on the waiting list.  I will have both lenses in my eyes replaced and if all goes well, hopefully will not need glasses any more other than for reading.  I am both scared & excited!

Christmas Catch Up...

So that is Christmas and the New Year over - I can't say I am sorry, it seemed like an awfully long break.  I did get a little time to paint over the holiday - had to, otherwise I'd have gone mad! The above is a relatively quick watercolour done in small bursts whenever I had a spare half hour or more.

This is a last minute commission I had to do before Christmas - I finished it with about a week to spare.  Merlin, watercolour on paper.

And now it's back to normality and a lot of work ahead of me, mainly knitting/sewing.  I guess playing with the Christmas presents will have to wait...

A Very Quick Kitty...

 This commission came about in a kind of funny way - I got an email from a lady enquiring about my knitted/felt cats and referencing a conversation we'd had.  Now, I know I am usually fairly pre-occupied and a bit scatterbrained, but I'm pretty sure I've never forgotten an enquiry about a prospective bit of work.  So I replied, saying as much, and telling her what I do make.

 She admitted she had confused me with someone else, but asked to see photos of my work - and then asked me to knit a replica of her cat and could I do it by the end of the week!  So here he is, Tenant.

 I haven't made one of these for a while, I'd forgotten how much fun it is assembling all the pieces and seeing a little character emerge.

 He also has a felt and fabric bed, plus a food bowl.  If I'd had more time, I'd have thrown in a bag of 'food' and a toy as well but he had to be in the post yesterday.

I can knit your cat too - just drop me a line!

Enzo

I've just finished this portrait of Enzo, a magnificent looking cat who is sadly no longer with us.  As he had such a wealth of fluffy fur and brilliant aquamarine coloured eyes, it required a slightly different technique this time.  I've used a combination of various coloured pencils, softer than Derwent Drawing pencils, together with watercolour paint and a touch of acrylic for the white highlights.  It was quite tricky, but immensely satisfying!

One more commission to do, this time for the middle of January - an interesting one requiring quite a bit of thought.

Cats For Christmas...

 It's been a very busy week, lots of knitting, mainly for Nudinits so those pieces will be seen in their run up to Christmas pictures.  Worth taking a look if you'd like a chuckle! 

I've also been working on a portrait of a cat, as well as his knitted replica.  The portrait is still in progress and I'm keeping this one under wraps until it is finished.  The replica however, was finished last night.

 He's small, grey and fluffy, with wool jointed legs.  Luckily I had some green cats' eyes left in my collection.

He has a replica bed too - I think the bed was trickier to make than the cat!

If you'd like your pet knitted, do get in touch, although I can't guarantee it to be ready for Christmas unless you live in the UK and even that is pushing it a bit!

Hephaistos the Magician's Cat

 I had a commission to make this little set again - what fun!

 The cat is knitted, the rest of his ensemble is sewn in felt and fabric.

 I embroidered inside the book...well, just because I could.

 He's fully poseable - loves his fishy!

Better not cross him though, he has access to magic!

It's too late to get one of these made for Halloween, but if you would like one or one similar, do get in touch - it's not too late for Christmas!

Cats!

All done, completed today in Derwent Drawing Pencils on pastel paper. 

I'm now free for commission!

Nearly There....

Despite the pretty bad reference photographs I was given (people never take pictures of their pets from their level, it's always from above!) this double portrait has gone surprisingly well.  I think I have done so many pet portraits using Derwent Drawing Pencils that they come very naturally now.  I'm having to use a fair bit of white acrylic on the cat in the foreground though - white pencil is always too insipid for this kind of work.  I think one more session will see this one finished.

Despite the heat, I have been manfully ploughing on with this commission - let's face it, you don't do the work, you don't get paid!  It is a chunky baby blanket knitted in a reversible cable pattern using washable pure new wool.  A beautiful yarn, very soft and great stitch definition.  I only have another few inches to go - thank goodness today is cooler, I had to give up last night before expiring of heatstroke!

I'm also crocheting a set of geckos but have come to a grinding halt due to being let down by a large yarn supplier.  Under normal circumstances, a couple of days delay would not be a problem but I need to have these done by the weekend - fingers crossed the other supplier I went to will come through as their parcel has already been despatched.

And when I get a minute or two spare, I'm working on this summer top for myself in a luscious deep teal cotton yarn.  It has an asymmetrical hemline with a lace border, but for the time being I am knitting the main part of the body in the round.  Thankfully it seems to be a fairly quick knit, unlike the other summer top I have on the go which has been put on the back burner due to commissioned work and the fact I felt the will to live slowly slipping away!  I will get back to it, honest.

Meanwhile, everything in the garden is on the verge of producing.  We've had a few bits and pieces - strawberries, new potatoes, chard, but there is plenty more to come.  Getting impatient now!

Finally, a few months ago I bought some coloured tin planters similar to the above for what now appears to be a vastly inflated price.  I found these little beauties in a shop called Tiger yesterday for £2 a piece.  I'm sure I can find something to fill them....

Fruit...

I've been teaching a couple of talented boys how to paint and draw for quite a few years now, since they first went to junior school.  They are now reaching the stage where everything they have learnt is starting to pay off, and it is wonderful to see them begin to master certain mediums and develop their own styles.  Yesterday I had a lesson with one of them and he has discovered lately that watercolours are the medium for him.  We've been working on washes, wet into wet, and other fairly basic techniques that give good almost immediate results - a real boost to his self-confidence to have something worth looking at after an hour's work!  He suggested we get some fruit this time - he's sketched fruit in pencil on numerous occasions, also used watercolour pencils to good effect.  Unfortunately, I did not think to photograph his painting before he left, but here is mine that I painted alongside him in order to show him what techniques and colours to use.  It was very good to have the exercise mentally, to have to observe carefully and work fast and loose!  I forget how much I enjoy little spontaneous watercolours - should do more.

However, I am currently working on a double cat portrait in Derwent Drawing Pencils, something which is definitely not loose - tight and detailed.  Considering I have pretty bad photos to work from, for this cat at least, it has made a very good start and I am happy with the way it is going...for now.

On the needles: still plugging away at the baby blanket; trying out a knitted dog on those tiny needles - it's going to be ridiculously small!

Fluffy!

In amongst everything else I've beenmaking, I have been knitting this rather lovely shawl.  It's a pattern I have used on many occasion with various different yarns and it has come up a treat each and every time.

This has been knitted in a mohair blend with a thin strip of irridescent sparkle running through it.  Very pretty indeed.

It is also a dream to knit this pattern as it is so easy to memorise with no fear of forgetting where you are if you put it down overnight.  Currently for sale in my Etsy shop.

Also for sale in my Etsy shop is this handsome fellow.  I'm still working through my portfolio and listing all these hidden paintings for sale - I can't keep hoarding them!

More Memories...

While searching for photos of Jasper through the dusty cobwebs at the back of my computer files, I came across a folder full of photos I thought had been lost when my last computer died.  It will take many days to trawl through them and see what is there, but it was good to find records of past commissions and paintings that are long gone.  Above, this was a 'treasure chest' painted with a portrait of a cat - it was also lined with silk, with a hole in the corner where a tiny painted mouse peeked out.

This is a painting of a saluki pup that I did for a calendar - I was determined to up the profile of salukis in print, there are not enough!  Unfortunately, shortly after I completed 24 paintings for two calendars, the company went into liquidation and I never got my paintings back - I believe they were being held hostage by some graphics designer until he got paid!  Luckily, I did get paid but there were other artists who lost out big time - if anyone out there knows the whereabouts of my work for these calendars (12 puppies, 12 kittens) I'd dearly love to get them back!

This was fun to paint - many years ago (before the builders moved in next door and made our garden a scary place for birds) we had a pear tree which blue-tits loved.  We used to get a nesting pair in our eaves every year and this is a painting of three young blue-tits who were so tame I could go out and if I stood quietly for a few minutes, I could get the perfect reference photos or check out their colours before trotting back to my easel.

On the needles this week - a very big sweater!
Also sewing bushes and plants as scenery for a new animation.

A Sneaky Peek...

For those of you who don't follow me on Twitter (If not, why not?  The link is right there, look, up to the right...) here are some stills from the animated film I have been working on, Nudinits.

I knitted quite a few creatures, here  are a few.  The chickens have to be one of my favourites - still can't quite believe they came out of my head!

Here's mama pig, doing what pigs do best.

And looking quite proud about it too!

Of course, there's never poo without flies....I knitted them too!

Snails are always a problem in the garden - but I wouldn't mind a few of these, cuddly not slimy!

And finally, here's the cat in his litter box.  And yes, I had to knit the contents of the litter box too!

By the way, there are a couple more days left to enter my giveaway for the wave painting - just leave a comment and I'll do a draw on the 11th October.

Open For Business!

Just listed commissioned pet portraits on my Etsy shop - the above are just a few examples of what I can do.

Ennui....

It happens every year, the portrait commissions dry up after Christmas for a few weeks while everyone tries to recover from the amount of money they spent on the festivities.

So it's always a bit disheartening as an artist to wonder if business will pick up again.

I'm sure it will, it always does, and in the meantime I have time to get on with personal paintings.  The trouble is, with the bleak conditions outside and the long winter nights, I always feel very uninspired to paint anything at all if I don't have to.

These are a few of my past commissions - I am available should you want one of your own.  For goodness' sake, give me some work and save me from actually doing the ironing and cleaning the house before my brain turns to sludge!!

Cats & Dogs...

Here is the completed double portrait.  This has been painted using a combination of Derwent Drawing Pencils and a lot of white acrylic paint, on pastel paper.  It's always tricky to combine two different animals using two different photographs for reference.  The sizes have to be exact - no-one wants one animal to be bigger than the other or the proportions to be wrong.  Hopefully here I have got it right! 

The cat caused a few headaches - that 'strawberry' stained mouth is so unusual!  I also did not look at the two animals together on the paper between sketching it out and making the final brushstroke on the cat. The dog was covered with paper to protect it while I was painting the cat - I just had to trust my own instincts that it would all look fine when finished.  I like to live dangerously!

Next up, another dog portrait.

There is still time between now and Christmas if you would like to commission a pet portrait for that special someone - when worked in the above medium, a painting can take about two weeks to complete.

On the needles...yet another zombie, plus I have to knit an aspidistra.  First I have to find out what an aspidistra is - I know it's a pot plant, but that's about as far as my knowledge extends.  Google here I come....

Further Down The Rabbit Hole...

Let's start with the most normal thing I have been working on this week.  This is the other half of a double pet portrait, and has to be the most unusually marked cat I have ever drawn.  My painting is only half finished but I think it shows that this feline looks like he's been at the lipstick or possibly drinking strawberry milkshake!  He has a pink ring around his mouth and I have been worried about it all week, to the extent that I have been covering the picture while not working on it so that no-one in the house makes any remarks that might affect my confidence.  However, after some concerted effort yesterday, I am finally passed the panic stage and looking forward to completing it very soon.

In a very surreal scenario, I am knitting a portrait of a knitted cat.  I know, it just gets weirder and weirder but there is method in the madness that will become plain one day.  In the meantime, I'm just enjoying the ride....

This evening sees the start of the new series of The Walking Dead (we are a week behind here in the UK) and I am so excited as it has to be my most favourite tv series since Lost.  No coincidence that I have been working on a knitted zombie this week!  I just love this pattern, it amuses me every time I make it.

I'm available for all your knitting needs, no matter how strange, just get in touch!