This is one of my latest portraits, a Westie with a full background. The client wanted their dog sitting in the grass exactly the same as the photo. Because the dog was white it needed a good tonal range behind to help it stand out from the background so the grass enabled me to add colour and tones in the background in the correct places to allow the Westie to stand out.

The clients were delighted with the portrait and have already emailed me a photo of the portrait framed which i will be adding to my website soon.

Here is my latest work in progress, i have only just added it to my website so ill leave it up for a while until i add my new set of work. its been so busy here i haven’t been able to update my website for such a long time. I have a long list of ‘i must do this’ and its growing by the minute! This is a portrait i started before we went away,. i blocked in the main areas and then all i needed to do was add detail when i came home. I used relatively thin layers on this one, white dogs are difficult you don’t want to go too white too quickly but you need to make them white enough but still keep the depth. Tricky. I hope that you enjoy it and i have already added it to my showcase blog, ill create a link and post it above!

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This is the third collie I completed in a row and was created to the size of 16 x 12 in pastel on velour. The dog is unfortunately not with us any longer and so the photos I had to work from weren’t too clear but the owner of the portrait and their family were absolutely thrilled with the results. They have sent me a photo of the portrait framed which you can see on my website along with some detailed versions of the drawing.

This is my latest pet portrait, i had already blocked in the basics of the painting before i went away so when i came home it was completely dry, all i needed to do was add the details to the dogs. I really enjoyed doing this one, i love the background colours and they are such cute dogs, you cant help but smile at them.

This was painted on a 16 x 12 in oils on canvas and oils are the perfect medium for their soft curly coats. It really enables you to blend areas of their fur into the background which gives overall a really soft feel to it. I have been really behind with updating my work in progress on my website so i will now go and add it to my site and my work in progress blog. A bit back to front but its been literally crazy here in the studio since we returned from being away. We have both been catching up with our sites and our paintings and burning the midnight oil!

Here is another Collie I completed as a 12 x 10. It was such a coincidence, I have three collies to do in a row. I will post the next one later for you to see. This client also ordered a portrait of her horse and its great to work with the same client on two portraits as you get to know them a little better. The photo I worked from on this particular commission was superb quality which enabled me to capture the detail in the eyes, nose and fur. I much prefer to work from better quality photos but often this isn’t possible, so this was a lovely one for me to complete. I hope that you enjoy it.

This is one of my latest pet portraits, a spaniel called Boddington running through the grass. The last couple of portraits, the pets have had such fantastic names, makes a change from the every day names like Max! Again as always i drew out the portrait and blocked in the background. I painted everything quite light as you can see to start with and i gradually darkened up the tones where needed so i could add texture as i was painting. There are also some more close up photos of the face of the spaniel and shows how i blended the chest with the grass to help it merge and recede. I will add the larger scan to my showcase blog and you can view it by clicking on the banner in my following post!

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This is my latest piece to be completed and it is for a local client, so i was able to meet ‘Socrates’ and take plenty of photos of him to get the perfect shot. It is quite a large painting, oils on canvas 24 x 20 and i am delivering it to the owners tomorrow. These are the first couple of stages, as you can see i drew out the basic outline fo the dog first and then started to add the colours and tones in the background. before this dries i like to block in the main tones of the dog so that i can blend the edges in to the background to give an overall soft feel.The second and third stages are adding deeper tones so that i can then add the lighter tones and detail onto. There was probably a couple fo stages of drying time in between stages two and four so that i coudl start afresh without the under layers moving or blending. This enables me to work dryly if needed. If you would like to read more about this commission and see a larger version click the banner in my next post : ) Enjoy!

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Hello everyone,

This is my latest piece to be completed and it is for a local client, so i was able to meet ‘Socrates’ and take plenty of photos of him to get the perfect shot. It is quite a large painting, oils on canvas 24 x 20 and i am delivering it to the owners tomorrow.

Both Nick and myself have been away to the Lake District looking after some friends dogs while they went on holiday. We took the majority of the studio with us so that we coudl both work while we were there. They had plenty of room so i was able to finish Sorates portrait among a few other things.

I also had the job of overhauling Nicks websites. He already had a horse portrait website and a part made dog portrait site, however his cat portrait site was not even made. So i overhauled the horse and dog site, changed the design and created the cat site as well. The cat and dog site are in their basic form, i think we will need to add some more things over time, but its a good start.

I really enjoy designing websites, i love the creative process, deciding on colours, backgrounds, where and how the navigation is going to be. I wanted it to look quite manly and also easy to use. I think i have achieved this, you can visit the sites below. The idea behind the sites is that we want surfers to flow throughout all the sites seamlessly without really realizing they are changing between them. This enables us to have sites devoted to each subject and in a sense be one complete site at the same time. I hope it works, im sure we will get some feedback about them on the forum!

http://www.dog-portraitartist.com
http://www.cat-portraitartist.com
http://www.horse-portraitartist.com

I also set Nick up with a blog which he has started to write on here – http://pastel-pet-portraits.blogspot.com

I hope that you enjoy visiting them and if you would like to swap links with us just drop me a line!

Hello everyone,
Here is one of my latest pet portraits of a beautiful Spaniel running through long grass and reeds. This portrait was for a UK client and I will be sending the portrait to them tomorrow. They are really pleased with the outcome and i am too. It was quite a difficult one to tackle, especially with the grass and making sure the background receded and the dog came forward. It would have been quite easy to loose in him all the grass. I have some step by steps of it on my work in progress blog as well. I hope you all enjoy it!

This pastel pet portrait was completed for a UK client to the size of 10 x 12. My website show a photo of the client, the painting framed and Moss the dog. Its great when clients email me photos of the paintings framed, framing the piece gives the portrait a completely different look and feel depending on the type of frame they choose. There are so many different combinations of mount/matt colours and textures along with the moldings to choose from, in the end not only is the portrait unique, the frames are unique too.