Barney's Portrait in Artist's Watercolours...

Here we have a 12"x16" artist's watercolour painting of Barney. He was painted as a belated Father's Day present.

Quite a challenging commission as I had to work from quite small photos of Barney scanned in and enlarged so that I could extrapolate as much detail as possible for reference.

I enjoy working in watercolours as they dry very quickly, therefore you can build up the layers of paint and start adding fur detail in rapid succession. Barney's owner Samantha, who commissioned the painting said that Barney very much loved sunbathing in the garden. We both decided that an atmospheric grassy/ sky background would suit our portrait perfectly and great fun to do in a wet on wet, colour wash technique.

The portrait will be framed and off to it's owner on Monday and I am very much looking forward to Samantha's dads reaction, to his surprise belated Father's Day gift.

Some feedback from Samantha's first viewing of Barney's portrait...

Hi Steve

"I love it, it looks so like him".

"Yes the portrait is brilliant, I can't wait to pick it up".

Walkies...

I've been busy over the last couple of weeks designing new business cards and double sided flyers for my "Pet portraits and More" business. Decided to have a break and the sunshine has made this a great weekend, with lots of country walks for Cassie. We've walked around most of the countryside in this area, which is quite picturesque and I must endevour to take my decent camera along to take some creative photos.

Cassie's favourite walk is around the perimeter of a wheat field just up the road. The field is surrounded by trees that have grown tremendously over the last few years. They have burst out of their protective corrugated plastic sleeves, that I think are used to keep the young trees upright and protect from rabbits etc: eating them before they are established. Cassie likes to wander between the trees and usually comes back with a plastic sleeve for us to play with. Funny that a found toy on route is always more fun for her to play with than the expensive dog frisbee I bought!

Still I dont mind as long as she's enjoying herself as you can see in the photos.

After the weekend break...I have two pet portrait commissions waiting in the wings, one on hold till the owner has her dog clipped and the other, just need to choose the best reference photos and its all systems go!