Man and Boy Commission

This latest painting is a commission for a wedding present from a lady to her new husband and son. It's nearly finished, I just need to come back to it tomorrow and correct any glaring errors in skin tone. After a while you just can't see it - a fresh pair of eyes is what's needed! These are the photos I worked from and the portrait was meant to be quite loose but I felt the subjects needed detail to fully appreciate the interaction between them. As usual I've included my step-by-step build up of the painting which is 16" x 20" on box canvas (so I've painted the sides as well).

Sailing Away Together

This commission came through the Ford Framing Shop in Arundel and was quite a challenge. The photograph supplied to work from was old and faded and lacked detail. The final piece is 19.75" x 10.75" so I had to paint the detail the best I could. I started by blocking out the main colours and shadows. The sea on the photograph was just two tone so I was able to paint in a more realistic choppy sea using other reference material, trail and error! I kept adding detail then knocking it back, I didn't want it to look abstract and painterly but it was so tricky to know if I was painting the subjects faces correctly. In the end I checked with the client who was happy with the likeness before adding sea spray with various sized brushes including a washing up brush. I've now got very white fingernails!

Two happy completed spaniels

Max and Jake are finished after a few more hours  of tweaking the colours and textures. My paint palette is disintegrating with so much mixing but I think I've finally got them and the grass is really textured so I'm pleased with it! Just need to choose a frame to set them off beautifully now.

Two happy spaniels

These two little cheeky chaps are coming on but the changes are not so startling as I build up layers of paint. You could play spot the difference if you like or I could just give a quick overview of the work completed at this stage! The background was worked on again which meant covering some detail on the dogs in order to get an even blend of blue without a strange halo around their heads. I put more detail into the grass adding different shades of green, yellow ochre, burnt umber, grey, blue and white. Then I worked on the black dog's fur, adding highlights in different shades of grey, blue and brown, then knocking it back by overpainting dark browns, greys and blacks. I've realised I've got his right eye in the wrong place - I can't see it on the photo so I'm having to guess based on other pictures, but it was going dark in my studio and when I came back to the painting the next day I decided to work on the other dog. Here you can probably see more of how the coat goes through layers of colour changes: pinks, oranges, creams, yellows, browns and greys are added then knocked back with white shades. Finally I worked on their pink tongues and it was dark in my studio again!

Two happy spaniels

This new commission is a gift from a lady to her son who is 40 on the 20th March this year - exactly the same as me!!! I've never met anyone whose birthday is on the same date as mine let alone the same year. Anyway, I started by sketching the dogs onto a 12 x 16" canvas board, painted in the background and picked out the eyes, nose and mouth with black paint. Then I built up texture using texture paste which obliterates most of my pencil marks so by painting in the background, which I just want to be flat, and the features, I stand a better chance of keeping everything in proportion. After leaving it to dry overnight I painted the grass then started adding the shadows and main features of each dog. After that I set to work on the black spaniel, Jake, making sure I painted in the highlights of his coat where I could make them out on the photo (black animals are the hardest to paint well). Then I gave Max, the cream and ginger spaniel, an undercoat and have left it all to dry. I'm not even half way through the painting process yet: when I next go back to it I will begin to build up the layers of colour to create a more 3-D effect, correcting the colours as I go and referring to the other photographs supplied. This is the bit that takes the most time but worth it for the end result!

Beach sunset

This large painting is of Freshwater West Beach in South Wales was commissioned by a couple who got engaged there at sunset a few years ago. It was a tricky composition and I have seen photos and paintings of this beach taken from the sand dunes further round the bay but Mr and Mrs Leppard wanted the view from the south side of the bay. I started by drawing a grid onto a 24 x 48" deep edge box canvas and a corresponding grid on my reference photo so I could get the rocks in the right places.Then I painted the edges dark red to tie the canvas into the couple's room decor. I built up texture on the canvas using texture paste then painted the shadows and rocks in black. Next I added colour, building up from light to dark and referring to a variety of alternative photographs of sunsets and skies. My aim was to create a mood rather than a totally realistic sunset as originally the brief was to limit the painting to just three colours.

A Christmas Angel

Here's the finished version of my little Christmas angel - she's so cute! As you can see in these last three stages I continued to work on her skin tone and hair, adding in different colours and shades for depth. Finally I worked on her eyes to make them really stand out as they are such a gorgeous blue. I'm sure she'll be brightening up her family this Christmas!

See some more examples of my child portraits.