Puppy love

   I've spent the last couple of days curled up on the sofa drawing with my faithful friend beside me watching my progress. This is him as a youngster. He is now 14 years old but he still knows how to leave paw prints on my heart with those soulful eyes of his.

' Puppy Love ' Pen and ink (10.5 by 7 inches)

Love, they say, is patient,

Love, they say, is kind,

It sees beyond another’s faults

For love, they say, is blind.

Love will not diminish,

Or rush or fade with years,

But it will gain its strength

From time, from laughter, joy and tears.

Love is God’s own gift to us.

A present from above,

He gives us peace, He gives us joy,

But first He gives us love. (Anon)

Scratchboard

Several of my art friends who do scratchboard have been wanting me to have a go for ages so I decided to try it out.  Harry very kindly posed for me. I used a touch of watercolour in his eyes. Any guesses what he was looking at?

 This drawing sold today. Someone saw it on my facebook page  so will be on its way to the US in the next day or two once the scratchboard is sealed.

Ona

Promotional Video

 I have created this short promotional video to share with potential clients who might be interested in getting a portrait painted or drawn of themselves, a family member or a pet. I hope you will enjoy it too though.


Ona

Commission progress

I have now finished working from the first reference photo. It was a challenge making Jim's hair spikey. I havent painted spikey hair before. I always like exploring and finding ways to meet a challenge.

Now I will start working on the puppy. As I look into his face on the ref photo I just wish I could reach out and cuddle him. He is just so adorable. I will need to think very carefully when painting him though because I need to add in the extra light from the right that was not there in the ref photo. I will also need to add some more shadowing to Elisha's hands which will be cast by the puppy. Its these sorts of things that make working from two photos a challenge but to me, its far better to have to think about this than try and guess information from a poor photo. I will post again when the painting is complete.

Ona

Choosing photo's for a Commission

I am currently working on a commission and my client has given me permission to share the process with you all.

Very often a client will commission a painting when either it is difficult to get a decent photo of what they would like or when a memory is very special to them. It is important to remember though that I, the artist, will have not met the people or animals that I am going to paint. So in order to capture that special moment or group shot I need as clear a set of photo's as possible. It is no problem for me to work from multiple photo's. This commission is a good example of this.

My client wants a painting of her son and his fiancee with their new puppy. She was unable though to get a clear photo of the three of them together. So I am working from two photos. One of her son and his fiancee together and a separate one of the puppy. My client did, in fact give me three different photos of her son and fiancee and two photos of the puppy. I then played around with the composition using the various photos to find the most natural group composition of the three of them together.These are the two photos that I chose to use from the selection.

I then created this outline from aspects of both photo's, just shifting odd details to make the piece gel as a whole.

I am now busily painting it. It is being painted on a 16 by 20 sheet of Arches cold press paper. I am working from the photo of the son and fiancee at the moment although I am changing clothes colours to make them less formal looking (you probably wouldn't wear your best clothes with a young puppy around)

They still look older than they really are at the moment (its the white hair that does it especially on Jim as he also has a receeding hairline at the moment because I have had to take the skin tones up further so that the skin shows under the hair at the edges)  I need to finish the clothing before I can paint their hair though.

Thank you Marietta for allowing me to share the process here.

Ona