Pet/Animal portraits
 

Here's a few I did some years back...

In loving memory of my ol' pal, Ricky.

This was drawn with soft pastels.

Soft-pastel drawing of Ben. Another sadly no longer with us but very happy
memories of two fantastic dogs! :)...

both are really good, the german shepherd one though blows me away.

Thankyou very much! :) ...Here's another one of him...again drawn with soft pastels...

DUDE!!!!!!!


these are fucking awesome man..............the colours..........damn...........nicely done.




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These are great!!!!

You're really good at these!

I like that you've captured the personality of these dogs. Very cool. :)

beautiful . . . say, how long did it take to do one of these? Just curious if you work over the span of several days, how much time you work on it per sitting, stuff like that.

Really, really good work.

Many thanks for your comments, everyone! Very, very much appreciated. :)

Beccarain - The time I spend on each drawing varies so much... That last one of Ricky I did in one sitting of about 7hrs, if I remember rightly. Others can take much longer...

This one I'm still working on for instance. I have no idea how many hours I've put into it and it still isn't right. I'm not happy with the eyes, the ears, the shading... AAAARRRGGGGHHH!!! it's driving me mad!

(This is all I could scan of an A3 image...)

You are trying to render a lot of detail with these pastels. You obviously have the ability to do this, but inherent in the pastel medium is a certain softness of line and blending of colors at borders, this is making your renderings, which are otherwise dead on, seem blurry, which is not so appealing. I think rather than tryin to capture reality with pastels so much and ending up with something blurry because of the nature of the medium, perhaps you can try and become more expressionistic with your renderings, embrace the medium rather than fight against it. Just some thoughts. I think these would look even better done in some good markers or color pencils.

Thank you Mead! I truly value your advice and I'll
keep it in mind next time I tackle pastel work. :)

I've been meaning to try coloured pencils... what are
they like to work with?

Here's another I did with soft pastels...

if I posted a picture of an artwork of my dog that I did, Id have to explain what animal it is and what kind of dog he is...

You have real talent, although I'm sure you've heard that time and again, at least I hope you have.
It's the eyes, I think, that really "bring them to life", they're so vivid.
Absolutely fantastic.

Don't put yourself down! I can tell from here that he's a
beautiful Scottish Terrier. ;)

Thank you so much for your encouraging words :)

I do spend lots of time trying to get the eyes right
in any portrait. If I discard a piece of work for some
reason, it's usually because I can't get the eyes right.

I like the eyes in this one... It's a bit grainy, being a
scan of a photocopy. Again, I could only fit so much
of an A3 pic onto my scanner...

I did this one with dry oil-pastels.

Those are really beautiful, I especially like the dogs. Thank you for sharing.

Thank you for your comment, Plummie. :)

I used dry oil-pastels for this one...

The same for this one...

This is an oil-pastel I started a few days ago.
Still a lot to do on it. I'm trying to keep it as colourful as possible...

Here's the reference photo I'm using...

really liking this one.........


http://www.tfproject.org/tfp/attachm...id=13380&stc=1



and i can't wait to see the finished Shepard

Thanks flyman! Couple of years back, I framed that one of the
tiger, and my local pub hung it where they used to have a dartboard.
I must admit, it looked pretty cool with the old spotlight on it. :)

I don't normally like showing anything that I haven't finished in case
I can't complete it. (usually 'cause I give up too easily when things don't
go to plan) But I thought I'd post that last one of Ricky thinking it might "force"
me to pull me finger out.

I finally finished this one today. Although, the more I look at it...I think it still needs some work... :crazy: :D

Oil pastel on A4 paper

Beautifully resolved. You can really feel the love you have for your dog. Not quite so sure about the others but that are great in their own way.

Many thanks for your comments, Lewis. I've never been fully
happy with the background/surround with the others. I usually
end up saying "that'll do" after messing around for ages, but I'm
really pleased with the way this one worked out. ..ish... I've been
working on the shading a bit... I think I'll stick it in a frame
pretty damn quick before I muck it up as usual. :D

That's it...I'm not going to touch this one again.

these pictures are sensational,you have a beautiful use of colour!they really are incredible

damn fine job man.........the shepard looks great.

Many thanks nic and flyman - your comments are
very encouraging to me and much appreciated. :)

no prob buddy


keep up the good work.

i'm impressed because pastels were never a medium i could control too well