Boy on a roof - retouched.

OK, so you've seen this picture before, but I have altered it slightly, honest, mainly around the eyes. I decided to post the finished version as the rest of my working time has been spent on a commission. I've reached the stage where I can start painting, but I need to check the client is happy before I start that, I think she should be, I am.

More good news, I've been commissioned to do an animal picture in acrylic. Just waiting for the pictures then I can get started...

Not quite finished, yet!

This picture is not quite finished yet, but I'm nearly there. I need to lighten the eyes.

Today I've been exploring the delights of sculpting acrylics. I love 3D mediums... It's not as clean as I wanted it, in my mind, but I think that works better for shoes.

I really love the effect. I just have to resist the urge to touch them before they're dry. More to the point, keep little fingers off.

Pencil Portrait

I've been getting to grips with the Inktense and watercolour pencils this week, after a few pointers from someone in the life drawing class. Quite pleased with the result.

This is a portrait of my niece, the likeness is quite accurate and I think I might have cracked the old watercolour pencils.

I spent most of the day at Crick boat show so not much drawing done. Lots of photographs taken though - some interesting animal pics which might be used for paintings at a later date. I'll probably do some quick sketches tonight, need to practice.

I'm feeling more positive after yesterday's downer, must look up the Royal Academy rejects exhibition, see if that's a goer!!

Do I LOOK happy?!!!!!!

This is one sorry dog. He's had his bandage removed but has to wear this for a week because he won't leave the stitches alone. When I look at him I imagine he's thinking "Do I look happy? First I cut my paw and am not allowed to lick it better. Next I get taken to the vets and have to stop Overnight. Then I have a purple bandage on it. That gets changed for one that rubs and give me a sore on the side of my thumb. Then I get that removed and have to wear this thing for a week!" He's been looking like this since we got home.

So, the conspiracy continues, I have the eldest sick again - sent home from school yesterday and I took the dog to the vet. I've managed to do some abstract work and I'm hoping to get on with a portrait this afternoon/evening - here's hoping!

I've been looking through the artist's yearbook trying to identify competitions to enter. Residences seem very appealing at the moment...!

The conspiracy continues

Another vet visit today, here he is in the new dressing - much better than the last one - purple. He apparently cut right down to the bone, rupturing the joint capsule but fortunately missing any tendons and nerves! Poor chap!

Conspiracy theory

I've long held the belief that children have a telepathic ability to maximise the disruption caused to their parent due to attention demands, illness, accidents etc. I hadn't realised this telepathic ability stretched to the household pets as well. Today I had planned the morning for drawing - nothing else on the agenda.

A touch of back story - last Tuesday we bought 8 fish - 2 goldfish to go with our existing lonely goldfish- Pizza and 6 tetras for the tropical tank. One of the goldfish had an ulcer which, after phoning the aquatics department, we decided to treat and if it didn't survive they would replace it. Anyway, it died yesterday so I went back to get a replacement - we thought we had a healthy one but I noticed it had a small white spot when I finally released it into the tank, yesterday. When I checked the tank this morning Pizza was covered in tiny white spots.

So, after dispatching the children at various bus stops and educational establishments, I fished the fish out of the tank and into a container and drove carefully to the garden centre for some advice. Apparently it's white spot and I needed to do 2 water changed and wait 3 hours between before giving them the treatment. That took up nearly half the morning.

This afternoon, Dominic had an appointment in Aylesbury - a good 3 hours when taking into account travelling. This evening, Andrew came back from walking Arrow - our daft Springer spaniel- and found he'd cut his paw badly, no idea on what but it was bleeding and wouldn't stop. So after wrapping it up he was taken to the vets and has had to stop in overnight. Which means I have to go and collect him tomorrow. I also have meetings about both sons tomorrow morning plus Ewan's swimming lesson. I will get some drawing done tomorrow night, I've signed up for a life drawing class - 5 sessions. I'm really looking forward to it...

Despite all that disruption, I have managed to get some drawing in today. I've started a picture of Bob Marley - approximately A2. It's going fairly well, I'm trying something new, I thought I'd try mixing a pencil portrait with the abstract technique I've been using, let's hope it works! It looks very odd at the moment as I'm not drawing the whole face to ensure the ink adheres well to the paper.

I've also had a telephone enquiry about "live caricaturing" at a party. I've said I'd be interested but I need to get practicing and hone my skills. So this evening I've spent some time on quick pictures, straight to ink. BTW , No, I'm not posting them, not happy with them. Just a little bit rusty, Maybe tomorrow...

Averting disaster

Now, you may need to sit down before you continue...

But...

I've actually...

Done a portrait!!!!!!!!!

(Firework display overhead , lots of cheers and champagne corks popping)

So here it is, Blue boy (Adam) mark 2

I left you yesterday heady from solvent fumes after spray painting and I greet you today heady with fumes from pastel fixatives. I may possibly have mentioned entering some pictures into an exhibition at Stowe school next week. Well, yesterday I went to frame the pictures and discovered I'd inadvertently put one of my pictures onto a recently oiled paint palette. The picture is effectively ruined. As I had already specified the picture details on the form I am not able to submit any other picture, so I've had to redraw him. Actually, to be honest and though it pains me to say this... I think I prefer this one to the original, (below).

I might need to touch it up a little, but me likey!

I decided to take a break from the RA entry as I'm feeling more than a little resentful of the time it's taking, and jaded with constantly looking at it. That and I had illness issues with children, well child to be more precise, but nothing that a pep talk and calpol couldn't fix!!!! The drive to and from his school ate into my painting time quite severely.

I have 4 pictures framed! Only 3 more to go!

Blue boy #2

I'm beginning to think I should rename my blog "Drawn to Portraiture" as I seem to be posting more regular portraits rather than the funny ones. This is another of my nephews, the likeness isn't quite as good on this one but there is some similarity. My son, Dominic, thinks they're creepy because they're blue. I quite like them - but I'm biased. I've mixed feeling about this one. I like the effect but the likeness isn't too hot probably only a 4 out of 10.

Mixed sums up today on the whole. This morning the forms for the Summer exhibition arrived -now I've just got to complete the picture. The painting, however, didn't go well and I've decided to paint out what I did today and start again - sigh!

We were also celebrating Andrew's sister Judi reaching 40 - so generally in a good mood. Then we had news that their elderly aunt died this morning - she was in her nineties. It was expected but she will be sorely missed. RIP Doreen.

Let's hope tomorrow will be better

Blue boy!

I'm going through a blue phase. This was a quick sketch of my nephew Adam. I decided to keep it monochrome blue mainly due to the restricted drawing time. That and it's good practice to stick to one colour from time to time. I've managed to get a likeness. I was after a sketchy style and it's worked.

Lots of time to paint today - I finished my big caricature with 4 people in it. I should be able to post it later on in the week. Don't want to give any details for the usual reasons. I'm really pleased with the likenesses. Marks out of 10 for the day? Oh I think it's an 8 or 9.

Must post something, Uma Thurman?

Sometimes I spend time on a drawing and think I've got it, only to find I scan it in the computer and it just hasn't worked as well as I thought. It's the old proximity thing.

I attempted Uma Thurman, I wasn't trying for a caricature but I think I did one. I'm still trying to get to grips with the inktense pencils. Her lips are much darker than I intended. I'm not a happy girl...Very frustrated at the moment.

Having said that, I managed a nice outdoor sketch at lunchtime, might scan it in tomorrow?

I also took this lovely picture of my dog.

4kids on a boat

I was having a really good day today until Siobhan told me she didn't like the caricature of her and friends. She wanted a portrait!!!!! "A prophet in his home town..." comes to mind. That more or less killed my enthusiasm for this one, but I finished it. It still needs some finishing touches but it's midnight and I think it might be better served with fresh eyes in the morning.

Yesterday my "inktense" pencils arrived and the supplier had included a set of faber artist's pens because the tin was slightly scratched. Royal mail had managed to chew the parcel so the tin was dented - fortunately all pencils were fine. As I purchased the item through ebay, I didn't want to leave negative feedback as it had been packed very well. I sent him an email just to let him know what had happened, just out of courtesy, not expecting anything. Well, he's now sending me another set of pens and a sketch book! What service!

This morning I finished applying the labels to the blog. After yesterday's efforts I was pleased to see a 47% increase in traffic yesterday. Hmm methinks labels might have had something to do with it. Talking of labels I must apologise if they seem a little unwieldy, I need to figure out how to display them more usefully. I also want to import a blog template but haven't figured out where to put it.

And as Zebadee would say "Time for bed!"

4 kids on a boat

This is a work in progress. If I thought achieving a likeness with one person was bad enough, getting a likeness with 4 is more than 4 times as difficult. There's probably some mathematical equation somewhere, Leonardo Da Vinci has probably already worked it out. I'm reasonably happy with likenesses of 3 - so in the words of Meatloaf (applying Victor Borges' inflation principle) sing with me, "3 out of 4 ain't bad."

Yesterday I worked on my Royal Academy entry. I've used an entire tube of blue acrylic and had to stop until I get some more. Not used to working on such a large picture.

I'm getting reasonably confident about my abilities now and I've finally taken on board the concept that I'm never going to be 100% happy with my pictures but will always be wanting to improve. That's a good thing. Needless to say making the art is only half of the process, I need to get my work "out there" - sound like a line from X files. As a result I've been exploring promotion and marketing ideas. Consequently, I've spent far too long -brain numbingly long - applying labels to my blog retrospectively. I'm not a technophobe but it takes me a while to grasp all the elements of a new technology gadget - alright new to me. I've just been reading about twittering in sounds useful but...baby steps... I'm about 2/5th the way through but decided to stop before I lost the will to live, or at least all feeling between my ears. Now, back to the drawing. Then onto the next celebrity...

Pink panther cake!

No caricatures today, birthday party to organise for my daughter. So here's the cake. I'm quite pleased with it, I'm not that keen on cake decorating, never happy with the results, not like clay or paint. So to be quite pleased is doing well for me. I also made my first pinata (I haven't worked out how to do accents yet-sorry) which is supposed to be a dragon - I hadn't realised it was Chinese New Year, honest - but I did intend it to look like a chinese dragon. I had some help with the painting of the head from Siobhan, I would have done it differently. Not bad for a first effort and definitely worth the effort to see their faces. Especially Andrew!!!!!!!!! He looks a bit worried.

See the picture below!

Andrew and Kylie Minogue

Time to post in earnest. After a week away, another finishing off my commission and another on the competition entry, I'm finally back to my regular caricatures. It's my husband's birthday today so I did this little number for him. He likes canals!

Today I worked on the picture of Kylie, I'm not 100% happy with it so I may have to have another go. The mouth isn't to my liking. I may tweak this one first, iron out the wrinkles. I like the general layout and the tiny body though.