Portrait of a beautiful couple and their dog

The portrait of this lovely couple was started a while ago and has gone through quite a few stages already. First I played around with the cropping of the photograph on my laptop and made sure the composition and sizing worked when I included their beloved dog. When we had agreed the composition I sketched the outline onto a 16 x 20" deep edge box canvas. I blocked in the background with a warm mix of burnt sienna and cadmium red and started painting skin tones and the dog's face as well as the main shadows in the hair and an outline of their features. I wasn't sure at this stage how much pattern to include on the shirt so painted a few stripes, keeping them vague whilst deepening some of the shadows. I added more colour to the background and started to build the painting in layers of different glazes using different sized brushes to keep the outer areas loose and the faces more detailed. Having painted the main tonal values including their clothing I united the picture with a warm glaze. This intensified the colour and gave the skin tones a summery glow but also had the effect of strengthening the background too much. So to bring the couple forward I striped in mixtures of payne's grey with cooler blues and greens. I wanted some of the red undertones to show through in places to keep the warm depth but it has also balanced the picture better. Now I am concentrating on the detail in their faces, ensuring I get the shadows and shapes right so keep watching...!

Reggie dog portrait

The portrait of Reggie is finished.With more layers of colour painted into his coat with a fine rigger brush, finishing with lighter colours to highlight the hairs that have caught the light and subtle alterations to the balance of tone, his sparkly little eyes convey his bright personality. I hope this painting encapsulates the life he enjoyed with his owners.

Reggie dog portrait

Reggie is my latest commission, and is not yet finished as I am also working on a couple with a black lab at the same time. This sprightly little chap has the wind in his hair and as the portrait is A4 size I decided to concentrate on his face. I started by painting the canvas board in shades of brown (it was meant to be cream but I thought the white fur would disappear on the left side too much). After the two coats had dried I sketched the main features and shadows in. Using black paint first I blocked in the shadows and painted his eyes, making sure I kept the shapes tight and in the right place. After placing the darks, I concentrated on the lights and painted in white paint with a wider brush. At this point I started to introduce some mid-tones - greys and yellows. The yellows were a mixture of yellow ochre and a touch of cadmium yellow as I wanted a bright under coat. The third photo shows the addition of burnt sienna on his ears and other areas of his coat to create warmth, as well as painting in the greys and blacks on his body and pinks and blues on his tongue. I have kept the bottom right purposely loose at this stage and might leave it depending on how the portrait progresses. In the top photo I changed my brush to a rigger and swept in long white hairs. I will continue to paint layers and layers of fine hairs now to build up a realistic looking coat. Keep watching...!

Mishulah

My latest commission is a cat called Mishulah. She has the most amazing turquoise eyes and beautiful markings. Her owner (don't cats have staff, not owners?!) wanted her portrayed with her tail wrapped around her which I was able to glean from other photos she sent me. I also posed her with her feet together for a more elegant stance. The portrait is an A4 pastel on cream pastel paper. The photos above take you quickly through the first stages of sketching the pose and laying down the base layers of coloured pastel through to the latter stages when more time is spent adding details and subtle colour changes that don't get picked up so well with the camera, but are a necessary part of bringing the animal to life. I put the eyes in first then laid a rough layer of pink all over to bring warmth to the coat and blocked in some of the white highlights. Then working from the top down, to avoid smudging, I blocked in the other main areas of colour and started adding in the dark brown markings. I used a cream pastel to blend the coat and merge the colours, taking care not to change the shape of the markings too much. The top two photos show the top layers of pastel being applied with a surprising amount of bright orange and yellow added in places alongside various shades of browns, ochres, grey, black and a touch of blue to the coat as well as the eyes (though you would never know). Finally those long, white whiskers were swept in with a sharpened pastel pencil - they're subtle, but they're there!

Portrait of a couple

Following on from the last blog entry this portrait has undergone a transformation and received some more subtle painting with layers of coloured glazes applied on the faces and hands to create the right skin tones. The bottom of the painting was to remain loose so I concentrated on getting their faces right first, adding tiny strokes and dabs of colour to get the features correct. I used my trusty sword liner brush to work rich tones into the long hair before moving on to the clothing. To gradually move away from the high detail in the top left I decided to hint at the fabric pattern of the waistcoat and be fairly vague with the folds of fabric on the arms. I don't usually like to use much black paint in my portraits as it's a bit of a dead colour but I had to go quite dark so mixed brown and blue into it to strengthen and highlight various areas. After tweaking the colours in their faces and hair one last time I got sploshy with the bottom half. I mixed some thinner shades of blues and purples, loaded some big brushes, flicked, splashed and spattered. I hope they like the Jackson Pollock-esque corner as much as I enjoyed doing it! Click on the top image to get a closer look.

Portrait of a couple

This commission I started a while ago and is needed for a wedding in May this year so has been sitting on one of my easels and been added to bit by bit. Now the Christmas backlog has gone and I've found a corner in my cottage (albeit a temporary spot) in which to paint, I will be able to focus in earnest. I played around with the composition initially but ended up coming back to the original crop and angle of the photograph and sketched it onto the canvas board. The bottom half of the painting is going to remain loose and painterly and their faces painted with more definition. I started with the idea of dripping the paint on the bottom of the canvas but I wasn't happy with the result so blocked in more of their clothes than originally planned. The beauty of acrylic paints is that I can experiment with each paint layer until I get it right. Keep watching as the portrait is now at its worst phase and will only get better from here. When I teach portraiture, this is always the place where most students lose heart - first you create a drawing and finally get the features in the right place, then you 'kill the white' (as Rolf Harris puts it) by putting on your first layer of paint. With the shadows and base colours in place you start to apply more detail, changing your loosely painted but interesting abstract into a badly painted school project! I have learnt this is part of the process and a beautiful painting can be achieved if you push through the pain barrier at this point. I hope it doesn't prove me wrong on this one!!

Happy New Year!

Welcome to my blog and Happy New Year for 2013! This year has started full of promise - having moved into our gorgeous little thatched cottage just before Christmas I already have plans to update the kitchen and convert one of the outhouses into an art studio. New art classes are starting up, beginning with a 6-week Drawing Course in Storrington from Tuesday 15th January (see www.katesartclasses.com) and others are in the pipeline including watercolour and portraiture. I love meeting new people and it's exciting for me to see different people's unique expressions of their own artistic flair as well as having space to enjoy just being creative. I'm tutoring on the Pets Portrait Diploma Course for London Art College (see www.londonartcollege.co.uk) and am looking forward to helping new students develop their skills. I also have a number of commissions on the go despite losing my ranking on Google's listings late last year due to one of their algorithm changes (see www.portraitsofpeople.net). There's still a lot of work to do to get me visible again but the drop in the usual amount of Christmas commissions did enable us to move with a little less stress and we love our new place!! Wishing you creativity, health and happiness throughout 2013.