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!

Still not here...

So, since I'm still being kicked out of my house on Saturdays for open houses, hubby and I thought a trip to the zoo with the neighbours was in order. MUCH better than hanging out in the car (that now has that subtle dog smell. No, not from Brandy. For what ever reason she always smells like soap and not dog. The other one, well,  let's just say his odour is rather unwelcoming in small spaces).

I'm actually surprised I was able to find time tonight to actually sit down and make a post - 4 showings (and much car time) later.

My favorite animals, you ask? They are, of course, the big puppies (in this shoot the wolves and dholes). But they're all pretty cool in their own way, I'm just biased to canines, what can I say.

Without further ado, here are the fruits of my labour after about 3-4 hours walking on a rather blustery day through the Toronto Zoo whilst being kicked out of my house.

Hubby's favorite animal. Can't blame him, they're pretty impressive.

Hmm, I honestly don't remember ever seeing jellies at the zoo, so this was a new one for me.

This is a Dhole, in case you're wondering. Very vocal little guys.

CONTEST WINNER!!

I happy to announce the I've drawn my portrait contest winner!

The winner is Shelley, and she will get a 5"x7" portrait completed of her late coonhound Maggie (shown above).

I'm really looking forward to getting started ... hopefully sooner than later. Seriously, anyone looking for a house to buy? I've got the perfect one right here. Milo is waiting patiently under my spare bed to be finished.

Congratulations to Shelley!! And thanks to all those who entered.

On Hiatus (for now)

I am on hiatus until further notice, in the mean time...

Who here enjoys selling their house? Come on, I don't see any hands raised.

Ok, now who hear hates selling their house with a passion? Ah, a lot more hands raised now I see. And wow, look, my hand seems to be the highest and waving the most obnoxiously.

Selling your house sucks. Selling your house and keeping it spotless sucks even more. Selling your house, keeping it spotless and having to remove dogs during showings and open houses sucks the most.

I'm thinking of pitching a tent in the backyard, that way I don't have to leave every time someone wants to have a gander at the humble abode.

So, if you haven't guessed it, all work has ceased action until I can set up again with out messing up our superbly magnificent cleaning job.

It is nice to live in a super clean environment though ... I'd just prefer to have a maid keep it that way and not me.

Anyone want to buy a house?

Yeah Canada!

 Congratulations to all of our wonderful Canadian athletes who participated in the Vancouver 2010 Winter Olympics. You did our country proud!

More Milo Progress

Continuing on with my giant Milo portrait (whilst watching foggy olympic mens slalom in HD - wow, the fog is so ... um, crisp), I've added some heavier blocks of colour, tones and shadows. Looks like I've covered almost all of the canvas and am now ready to get down to some larger detail. This colour doesn't really reflect his true coat yet, but with more layers I will build upon that. He's really beginning to take shape though - so far so good.

After my two and half hours in front of the canvas today, I decided to take a break from the acrylic fumes, go for a walk and then continue reading my current, multi-times read (yes I re-read over, and over and over), Dean Koontz novel.

Upstairs, on the bed with Brandy, reading away in my own little world, I caught movement out of the corner of my eye. It turns out that either hubby did not close Mr. Chameleons cage door very well or the little bugger is damn smart and uses his oven mitt hands rather well. He decided to take it upon himself to exit the cage and go for a jaunt around the master bedroom, while Brandy was observing. I'll admit, it scared the hell out of me for a second to see a colourful, free-range lizard crawling up the bedspread near my face. Just a for a second mind you, he's really just a harmless little fella who thinks he's tough. Thank God I have a well behaved little dog who wouldn't dare lay a tooth on the chams. But had that been a cat or some furry creature crawling around my bedroom, I'm sure the outcome wouldn't have been as pleasant or bloodless.

I don't have a clue how long he'd been wandering, but he's been returned home now, with the cage secured (and double checked), heating up under his lamp. He really does like to come out and enjoy our company, but I'd prefer that he did it on our time, not his.

Milo Painting Progress

I got down to business today on this expansive painting, and was able to create a very subtly patterned background and block in colour on Milo himself (whislt watching the olympic mens ski-cross event - awesome!).

So far I enjoy working at this much larger size than I am used to. Though there is, of course, a lot more canvas to cover, at this size I am able to be a little more free with my brush strokes, and have found that I'm using less paint than what I thought I would.

So here is the background with a bit of patterning, which I toned down in the previous step as I found the colours were too harsh. I didn't want the pattern to take away from the dog, so I reduced it by over-painting with the original solid background colour (the lighter of the stripes).

And here is Milo beginning to take shape. I've blocked in most of the basic areas so that I can determine the darks from the lights and shadows.

So far so good, and I am already pleased with how the progress is coming along.

And now, I must take the dogs out and prepare myself for the Canada vs. US mens olympic hockey. I don't know if I'll be able to handle it, the suspense is killing me. Go Canada Go!!