James...

 I have just finished this watercolour portrait and am so very happy with it!  When someone asked if I could paint their late partner, only recently deceased, I felt a huge responsibility and was anxious that I might not be able to achieve a suitable representation.  However, the photograph I was given to work with was so good and so joyous, I knew straight away that this was going to be a thoroughly enjoyable task.

This one is big - it's about three times the size I usually work with, and took up my whole drawing board - as I work with my board in my lap, it was a bit of a handful at times!  I started with the background and then the scarf and shirt - unusual for me, I usually start a portrait with the eyes, but as the eyes were sunglasses in this case, I thought to begin from the outside in.  There was not a single part of this painting that I did not enjoy, and I am particularly proud of how the sunglasses have turned out, especially as once I had completed them and their reflections, I realised you can see the suggestion of the gentleman's eyes behind them.

Now to await the client's reaction...

Orb...

Here is the knitted orb to go with the crown I made previously.  Next up, the sceptre...
 

Crowning Glory...

Just a little something I have been working on lately...
 

Interlude...

While I was between commissions at the weekend, I wanted to paint a little watercolour just to get back into the swing of using a paintbrush after pencilling for the past few weeks.  This painting is based on a scene I saw on the Explore.org bear cams a couple of weeks ago.  I haven't quite captured the light I wanted to, but I love the granulation on the bears.  It will do!

The commission I have just begun consists of a very large watercolour portrait - I drew it out yesterday and cannot wait to get started with the paint!
 

Pugs...

 I finally completed this one yesterday - thoroughly enjoyed drawing these cute little pugs.  Derweent Coloursoft pencils on pastel paper, private comission. That is the end of the dog portraits for now - my next commission is a people portrait and I am very excited about it!

I Am Still Here...

 I can't believe it has been over a month since I last posted!  I have been doing stuff, but just not had the time to sit down and post it.  I have been knitting a few things for Nudinits, crocheted another sunflower shawl, and am currently working on a pencil portrait of a pair of pugs - this is how far I have got.

We have also been on holiday - we needed it after the drama of April!  We spent a week by the sea in a quiet village, with the beach two minutes walk away from our holiday let.  We just relaxed, collected fossils, pottered by the sea and generally restored our batteries.  The weather was great, the beach was deserted most of the time and was also dog friendly.

Upon our return, the garden had gone berserk and everything had grown about two feet taller, so I had to spend some time sorting that out.  Looks like we will have some veg this year after all!  And my daughter had her follow up visit to the hospital and we have been told that after a few more days on the reduced dose of 1 steroid tablet per day, she can finally come off the meds and all we have to do is make sure she does not come into close contact with any birds.  What a relief - its been a nightmare but it is finally over.

So hopefully I can get back into the swing of making and painting without any huge (for now) worries hanging over my head.  The next portrait commission I have is a very interesting one and Icannot wait to get started!

Finally Finished...

 This commission has taken me literally months to complete, mainly due to April being a complete disaster with my daughter's illness.  Once we had got over that, I had lost all motivation and it was difficult to get back in the swing of things as far as painting was concerned.

I was also not happy with the composition of this piece - the dog's head peering through the lilies is a picture of the same dog when it was a puppy, at the client's request. It is not something I would have ever chosen to do myself.  I also had about 6 photographs to work from in order to get the exact composition wanted by the client, so it was quite a task!

However, it finally got finished this week and the client is very happy with it, which is all I ask for really.  This was painted in watercolour on paper.

Next up - a pair of pugs in pencil on paper!  Looking forward to that one.  Funny how this year it is all about dogs whereas last year it was all about bears...