Herman - Finished

Here is the finished version of Herman waiting for approval. The mane was still a bit wet when I took the photo and has a bit of light reflection from the daylight lamp.

Herman

Herman at lunchtime today.

Herman

Next stage of Herman.

Herman

Here is the beginning stage of Herman. The photo has come out quite dark even with the daylight lamp being on. This is going to be quite a tricky painting as Herman has done a Phillip Schofield with speckles of grey hair in his coat so I am trying to reduce the amount of grey in the coat whilst still keeping the sun highlights. Luckily I like a challenge!

Hash - finished

Here is the final version of Hash, waiting for approval. I've really enjoyed this painting, it's always fun to do interesting poses so I must remember to push this idea to more customers!

I don't know if you've spotted on my showcase blog but I had some very exciting news the other day. I recently entered some of my paintings into a competition held by the American publication Art Horse Magazine. I won the Directors Choice Award for my painting 'Alert', this painting also came 2nd in the painting category with my painting 'The Stare' coming 7th! They also produce a book following this competition and are including another of my paintings, 'Meandering', in this book!! I'm so excited by this news, it's always a great boost to the confidence and extremely humbling being in amongst some fantastic equestrian artists. Click here to see more about the competition.

Hash

Nearly forgot to upload Friday's painting! As you can see, not far to go, just Hash's head and then some shading on the ground under the raised feet to give the appearance of walking on something solid and not floating. I've been really enjoying this commission as it's such a different pose to the norm and I'm definitely going to try and convince more customers to follow suit in the future if they like the outcome of this one.

Hash

Update on yesterday's work. I've nearly finished all the legs and will then be making a start on his body. I always work on the parts of the body that are towards the back, behind other parts of the body, in this case the head as it will help the head to stand out when I come to paint it.

Hash

Camera has charged!

Hash

I have started the painting of Hash but the camera's battery has just died as I tried to upload the photo of the painting so I will have to wait until it's recharged before I can get it on here! I'm desperately trying to catch up on all the admin side of this business as I've let it slip a bit. My finances hadn't been done since September!! I recently had another artist say that I had to watch I didn't become a workaholic which I chuckled at as I've never considered myself to be one but I don't spend enough time on the admin and marketing side of art that I should. Advice is that you should spend half your time painting and half your time on admin but I'm more 90% painting and 10% admin so I'm going to change that next year. You don't realise there's so much more to painting than just the painting when you take it up!

Frankie - Finished

Here is the finished version of Frankie. I always feel really privileged being commissioned to produce paintings of all these gorgeous horses as they are a joy to do.

Frankie

At lunchtime today. Just the ears and mane to go. The photo is a touch blurry due to my very cold hands trying to hold the camera! Also, there is lighting from my daylight lamp to the left-hand side of the painting making it appear lighter there than it actually is.

Frankie

This is Frankie at lunchtime today. There are so many different colours involved in chestnut coats, including grey tones etc so I find each chestnut challenging but also a great learning experience in colour mixing.

Frankie

Here are the beginnings of Frankie, a very handsome chestnut. I've kept the shadow in on the neck to make sense of the lighting but I've tried to make it less of a contrast.

Zebras - finished

At last, we have broadband!! It's a very sad fact that I miss the internet when it's not there but being an artist is a very isolated existence so I use the internet to keep in contact with lots of people and it's very lonely without!

Here, finally, is the finished version of the Zebras.

It has been approved and just had a coat of varnish so will be ready to be placed under the Christmas tree shortly.

I have started on the next painting but will take a photo in the morning when the light is better. I must thank you all for being patient due to the unfortunate timing of our moving house plus my subsequent stress that had me floored for a few days last week but I'm up and painting with fury again and will endeavour to catch up!

Update

Just a quick note to say that paintings are being done, the Zebras are finished but we've been without internet connection and since today only have very slow dial up so posting photos will be impossible until our internet provider sort out our connection. It might be slow on dial up, but it's sooo good to have internet connection back!

Zebras

I've nearly finished the other Zebra now, just the ear to go! I ran out of time today because we had the call come through that the keys to our new house were ready to pick up so I chose to do that rather than finish the ear!

Zebras

Just the head and neck to go on the right hand side Zebra. I'm really enjoying this painting, having never painted wildlife before, except a whale and a frog at school! If anyone's going on safari and has space in their suitcase to ship me over, please let me know!

Zebras

Here it is today with a close up of the finished Zebra on the left.

Zebras

I'm loving doing this commission and am learning a great deal along the way. People always think of Zebras as being black and white but there are so many other colours involved, their coat contains ochres, oranges and yellows, lots of which has presumably come from the dust they have been rolling in plus colours get reflected on animals coats from their surroundings. Even the black stripes aren't "just black" as they reflect light, curve with the bodies etc so I have to be careful I get this right. Don't forget you can click on the picture to see a larger version.

Zebras

I also started the painting of the Zebras today. I drew it up yesterday and then today filled in the background and started to block out the stripes. I've been really looking forward to this painting as I've never painted zebras before so it'll be a really interesting challenge and one that my strange love of detail and perfection will enjoy. It's such a beautiful photo and I really hope I do it justice.

Benny - Finished

Here is the finished version of Benny, he's been approved and is now waiting for his first coat of varnish. I've recently started using some new acrylic paints and one of the downsides, as I found out with my last painting, is that even after a few days, some of the colours, mainly the darker colours, still aren't completely dry and streaked when I brushed on the varnish so I'm now going to have to wait longer until I varnish my paintings. A bit of a pain on a tight schedule but I'm now paranoid about ruining the paintings!

Benny

Benny

Benny at lunchtime today.

Benny

Here is the first stage of Benny. He'll look a bit bald for a day or two as I always do the forelock last but as I'm going to get the straightening irons to his forelock when I paint it in, there currently isn't even a hint of hair in the painting so it may look a bit odd. Hopefully you can imagine it there!

I've done his neck today and have put in the underlayers for the rest of him and you will see as it progresses that I will layer paint on top, lightening as I go.

Montage finished

Here is the finished version of the montage. I did a bit of work on it last night to make sure I could get it finished by lunchtime today and to save my eyes going too cross-eyed! I love doing detail but I'm sure it's not good for my eyesight!

Montage

I had hoped to finish the montage today but once again things got in the way but very good and exciting things. This morning we had the call we've been waiting weeks for, that the house exchange has gone ahead and we are finally home owners!! So that meant lots of calling around and letting people know. We pick up the keys on Nov 10, right in the middle of hectic painting time but I'm sure it'll be alright, I'll just have to make sure that the first things I unpack are my art bits and pieces!

Montage

Only two left to go. I had assumed it wouldn't take me this long to do the montage but it's amazing how putting in lots of detail at such a small scale takes it's time, and also it's toll on my eyes as I've gone cross-eyed! :-D

Montage and Benny

I've finished all the backgrounds on the montage. I have to wait for each layer to dry completely before I can put the next on as it can lift the paint off the canvas if I put wet on wet so it's taken longer than I hoped. I also drew up and put the background colour on the next commission of Benny.

Montage

It's coming along! Today I painted in William, but I chose to do a background of trees instead of the stables he was stood infront of in the photo to keep it simpler and show him up more. I will also be doing this with the horse top right to link the outside pictures together.

And the bottom pic is our little girl cat Izzy who is extremely cute even when she steals my chair whilst I'm trying to work!!

Montage

Montage

Here it is with Teddy finished and a close up to show the detail.

Montage

I've nearly finished the first image on the montage and have also added a close up of Storm.

Montage

Here are the beginnings of the montage. I have drawn up each individual picture and then applied the background colour which has taken 3 layers for even coverage.

Artist is off sick!

Just to warn you that my timetable might get behind by a few days this week as I picked up a cold at the weekend and even though I hoped it would be gone by now, it seems to be making my head nice and foggy making painting a tricky task! Friday is also a no go day as we're off to sign contracts on our first house (at last!!!) so hopefully things will be back to normal from Monday and I will be painting like a mad thing! :-D

Isaac finished

Here is the finished version of Isaac.

Stage two of Isaac.