Owl

This week I had a new delivery of Pastelmat in various colours and unfortunately the surface of the sheet of Anthracite is a bit suspect. It wasn't until after I cut it that I realised there was a distinct line across it, some strange shading on the reverse and the surface seemed much coarser than the other colours. Anyway having cut it and still in an experimental mode I decided to give it a try. I'm not totally happy with the owl probably because birds are not really my subject, and I may still do some more tweaking. The size is 25x25cm and I used various makes of pencil from the softest to the very hardest and even used some heat from an iron on the reverse to melt the wax in the lightest areas. This caused some cockling so I then had to glue it to a piece of mount board. I have been more impressionistic with the feathers than I would normally do but maybe it will grow on me.

Bear

Another small one, 18x26cm. Pastelmat and Prismacolor.

Experimenting with different styles

Two small pictures one very loose and painterly and the other

sharp and full of contrast. Both coloured pencil, the trees are on dark grey pastelmat using Prismacolor and the machinery is Polydraw using Polychromos.

End of the lull

I can't believe it is so long since I posted to my blog. I have been so busy with the last of the exhibitions, still have 4 pictures in at the RWA Friends, and besides that we have had a new central heating system installed and still have all the other bits to do to finish off. It has been a hard process getting back into painting again. I have had so many false starts, nothing worth showing and last week I started several different projects that may come to something or not but here is the first picture completed since the last post blog and I am really pleased with it so hopefully the dry period is over. I was inspired by a picture of a cat that Margaret Edwards was demonstrating at the NEC Art Materials Live show. I found a suitable royalty free reference photo on Wet Canvas (a big thank you to the photographer) and have been working on this over the last few days. I have used Prismacolor on dk grey Pastelmat size 36x28cm.

Ship Ahoy!

Well, a big departure from CP, this one is acrylic, way out of my comfort zone but I so enjoyed doing it I may do another. Inspired by a photo I took in NZ of a boy at the top of Rangitoto, the volcanic island, overlooking Auckland Harbour. I have done my own interpretation of the scene and included the photo for comparison. The scan of the painting hasn't come out particularly well. 5x7in on canvas.

Daisy with sunglasses

Another picture of Daisy on holiday. I loved doing the distorted reflections of sunbathers in the glasses. Size 21x27cm, mainly Prismacolor on Clarefontaine Pastelmat.

Pebbles 2 WIP

I started this second pebble picture while doing the demo at the RBSA last Friday and spent a couple of hours on it today. It has been a nice break from portraits and animals that have to be so exact and it is the sort of picture I can leave for a while and pick up again at a later date. I have used Fabriano Classico with Prismacolor and a touch of Polychromos.