Say hello to my little Friend...

Taco poses on the chair in my office

This adorably cute little fella is Taco the Chihauhau. One of the sweetest little dogs I've ever met, he's getting up there in age, but he still gets around pretty good. He came to my office to pose for reference photos and was a perfect little gentleman. Too cute for words, I just finished this little guy over the weekend, an 11"x14" pencil portrait to be delivered to his owner on Friday. Thanks for the opportunity to create this portrait for you Joette!

Productive Weekend

This weekend I spent some time finishing off a portrait, and working on Milo. The portrait has gone to the client for proofing, and I will post an image of it once I hear back. As far as Milo goes, he's really beginning to take shape. Poor guy, it's been a while since I put brush to canvas, but finally this weekend I was able to give him some attention and a bit of personality, so he's really coming along now. It felt good to fiddle with the acrylics again and I'm hoping to have him fully completed in the next few weeks. You can see his progress below:

Fiddling with the basic shadows and highlights

Adding some depth, personality and more shadows and highlights

Brandy and I also took in a CPE agility trial at Acton Agility. It's been a while since we've been on course, but the little dog surprised me and managed to get 4 out of 4 qualifying runs (a little elephant never forgets), and landed herself the Level 4 Standard Title (CL4-R). Lucky for me, she's still got it and probably always will have it. Smart little spoiled bugger.

What a life!

Brandy - The B-Hive, ADC, SGDC, AADC, RN MCL, RPT, CL2, CL3 CL4-R, HIT Agility JRTRO Trial 2009, JRTCC SGD

Contest Winner Portrait Complete!

Well, certainly I'm not back at full speed here, which I'm sure most of you have noticed. Though accepting portraits and design work, I won't be back blogging again at my usual pace until sometime after May 20th (moving day!).

I wanted to share the portrait that was completed for Shelley, the winner of my portrait contest.

This is beautiful Maggie, the black and tan coonhound. A gorgeous dog, with tons of expression in that sweet face. Though Maggie is no longer with us, Shelley still deeply cherishes her, and this is what she had to say about the portrait:

"Wow, that is amazing.  You do beautiful work.  It brings tears to my eyes.  You were able to keep the soft expression in her eyes.  She has real doe eyes, and I can see them so clearly."

This portrait was great to work on as it gave me the opportunity to work with a lot of darker shades, great for depth, shadows and highlights. Congratulations once again Shelley on the contest win!

Done and Done

Ah, the Christmas portraits are complete, shipped and delivered, what a wonderful feeling. These two were a blast to create, with loads of personality in the fuzzy faces, and great reference photos from the clients.

I hope that these two pieces do justice to the beloved animals in them. I will say, I am quite pleased with how they turned out, and am looking forward to getting started on the next one.

 Note: there isn't a line through the original, I had to scan Tequila's portrait in two separate pieces

I will be officially announcing the contest for a complimentary 5"x7" pencil portrait after the holidays are over, so stay tuned!

In the mean time, I hope everyone has a safe, happy and healthy holiday season. Here's to a white Christmas, with snow melting the next day and temperatures in the low 20's for the rest of the winter. Is that too positive? Is there such thing as being too positive? Well, one can only hope.

All the best!!

Road Flower

Just a flower that we (hubby and I) found in a dense field of flowers on 10th Side Road in Milton. A gorgeous array of colours, types and sizes that I caught on film. This was a drawing experiment from the photo results in an impressionistic style, heavy coverage and layering with coloured pencil. 5"x7" on Strathmore Bristol Smooth paper.

Just a Taste

I was inspired by some of the pictures that I took down in Cayo Coco, Cuba. So I have decided to do a 4x6 graphite pencil trilogy, a 5x7 graphite pencil piece, and blow up some of the really good photos for possible sale as prints. Will this all get done? - I ask myself...yes, in time, for sure, I'm definitely motivated for this project.

I've started on the 4x6 trilogy, entitled none other than "The Dogs of Moron". I will post bits and pieces as I progress through the work, and I will announce anything that will be available for sale as prints. Once the trilogy and the lone 5x7 are complete, I may also offer a small amount of prints for these as well.

I will also be embarking on a butterfly 4x6 trilogy in coloured pencil, though this has nothing to do with my trip to Cuba. Reference photos for this series were taken at the Niagara Butterfly Conservatory, and I will post bits and pieces on these as well.

A first glimpse at the initial drawing in the "Dogs of Moron" series. This guys lounges quietly on the tiled sidewalk, an air of dignity surrounds him as he rests in the shade beside a man who may or may not be "his" man.

Completed...and given!

This piece was created as a gift for my sister and her new husband, who were just married last week in Cuba (March 4, 2009).

We agreed upon no gifts...but I had to do something. I wanted it to be inexpensive but different, something a little special. That's when I can up with the portrait idea and, well the rest is history.

The portrait is a 9"x12" graphite pencil created on Strathmore Bristol smooth 100lb stock, accentuated with a solid black wood frame.

They seemed extremely pleased to receive it, and I wish them the best of luck and love in their upcoming married years!

Asian/Indian Elephant

The Asian elephant is smaller than the African elephant, and can be differentiated by it's smaller, more rounded ears. These elephants are endangered in the wild with only about 24,000 - 48,000 individuals roaming the earth today.

Asian Elephant Facts

I am very about pleased how well this sketch turned out. It is unusual that I'm drawing anything else besides dogs, but I wanted to take on this challenge as I would like to create an acrylic wildlife series in the near future (when time allows - which it seemingly never does). This piece and others like this will give me practice on something other than the canine form. Mr. Asian/Indian Elephant was created in a sketch book with a mechanical pencil. I really enjoy the fine lines I can attain with the mechanical as well as the deep darks/shading that I can create with this tool.

Working Utensils

Yes, these are my "working utensils". I use a lot of paper clips at work, if find them indispensable in my field, and I could never even image getting along with out my hardworking, blue ink pen. I prefer to utilize these for my working environment, of course, I would be no where without my electronics, but I'm a sucker for old school devices. These two items work well in the field, and can ever be introduced to a home environment. Clearly I am insane.

A Mouse Amoung the Money Trees

Anyone else feel like the electronics are taking over? I'm forced to sit and stare at an inanimate computer screen on a daily, 7 hour basis, while my mouse plays games on me, deciding at the most inopportune moment, that it's going to shut itself off, laughing in my face as I struggle to minimize the Internet porn sight that I have open on my desktop while sales people are pouring into my office. Actually, I don't look at Internet porn - especially not at work. I'm not that stupid. I only look at dog sites. And no one really pours into my office - I try to make it as inhospitable as possible. But the mouse teases and taunts me, flickering it's little red light in my face ... isn't that a laser beam or something, that could destroy your vision with even an inadvertent glace in it's direction? My mouse at home is much more forgiving with me, never gives me any issues, doesn't turn off at odd times, doesn't try to burn my eyes out and never talks back. Oh, but to go back to pencils, pens, erasers and paper. Computers and other electronics can be bad for your health, or so they say. As far as I know, pencils do not cause cancer, and they're not bright enough to take over.