On with the next projects. At the moment on my list I have three to do. 2 of which I can show you, The third I will keep secret until the client has given the portrait as a present for her husbands birthday!
The other 2 are:
a) Eric. An exmoor pony who is an absolute poppet. I went out to meet Eric in the New Forest area and took lots of photos. So far I have started to work out the setting. The background needed to be outside as the owners favourite photo was Eric with the wind blowing his vast mane! He is a very pretty pony, typical of the exmoor and will be a pleasure to paint.
Also, b) A donkey called Bubba, who resides at the Devon Donkey Sanctuary. The portrait will be completed and sent to the sanctuary where they will use it for fundraising.
Well its finally finished and approved.! The present was given and gladly I can say was greatly received. This was for a lady who has owned horses all her life and the ones chosen for the portrait were her favourites.
Ok, Time to blog! Half term and sickness bug had put a stop to painting for a couple of days but we are back on track and steaming towards the home straight! This one is very nearly complete now so this piccy is where its at this eve. I have gone through each one doing underpaintings and loose details, now working my way back the other way (no particular reason) tightening them all up, adding fine detail and blending colours, light and shading. So 2 more to go. Hopefully finish Tues and have Wednesday for fiddling!
I am loving all the nitty gritty tack details and the colour blending :-)
Joined together with the looseness and course brushstrokes of the background.
The background is going to have to be re worked once the horses are complete. I have patched it up in places due to slight changes in the horses as I have progressed. The basic idea will be the same, working with sagey greens, middle grey, raw umber, buff titanium and titanium white.
Ok. On with the commissions. :D I have started a large commission now, Its of 4 horses. Two of them have unfortunately passed away so we are really ltd with photos of those two. I have managed to get some more photos sent of the other 2 and I am working from numerous photos to get this portrait complete.
One major issue when doing a large portrait is getting the sizes correct. None of the horses are photographed together so it is vital to get as much information as to the proportions etc. Who is the biggest? It might sound simple, but to get them all looking correct from numerous photos requires a lot of study and placing.
To ensure I had got this one correct, once each horse was sketched out, i copied the sketches and made templates up to the correct sizing and placed them on canvas. This is the stage you can see here in the the photo. Once these were all placed and the client had approved it, I could then draw them out onto the canvas for real. I have now done this and also put in the back ground. I will post an update late this week to show how this one is progressing. I have a tight deadline on this , so things should move along quite swiftly. Come back soon to see how its going :)
Well, the first commission of the new year is completed and sent off following approval! He's Henry! shown here, a much loved cat. The portrait was purchased for the gentlemans wife as a surprise present!
I love being part of so many surprises and gifts. I suppose thats one of the lovely parts of my job. I am lucky to generally see people when they are excited about producing the portrait as a gift or generally to celebrate their much loved pet.
Sometimes the portraits are completed of a lost loved one. This is a lovely way to show how much the pet /horse meant to you and lets you have a part of them with you to ponder at for years after their departure. Photographs can sometimes be a problem at this time as you obviously have only to work with what was taken in the past. Usually however, using a selection of photographs, I can depict your horse or pet and still get an accurate likeness and bring out their much loved character.
This year, I am striving to be more organised, stricter with my work routines and not neglet my marketing or online prescense! So blogging here should be weekly, my website will updated monthly ( at least) :) and ongoing exhibitions will as always have my newest and most up to date works shown. I am determined to work hard again this year and get accepted again for the Mall Galleries Society of Equestrian Artists annual exhibition. I have one piece I am working on for that so I will keep you posted.
Very exciting. My painting has been packed off and on it's way to the NEC Birmingham, England.
My painting "Racing Stripes" has been chosen to be exhibited at the annual Simply the Best leisure painter magaqine exhibition. It will run from the 5th - 8th of November 2009. It runs along side the amazing Art Materials Live event show held at the NEC.
Visitors can vote for the peoples winner and shortlisted entrants will be shown in the Leisure Painter Magazine in the New Year!!!! Fingers crossed and lets hope it sells too :D
Ok , back to work. Things are piling up for the christmas list and I have, in between dealing with kids, horse, dog and puppies done a commission since i last updated on here!!
This is a lovely grey arab cross called Koodoo!!
His owner has seen and approved this one ... so its on with the next.
The next one is of a collie cross , wont be able to blog the work in progress as its a present for the customers sister. I will post all the christmas portraits in the new year.
Ahhhhhhhh.... seven little babies! :D Just realised i havnt blogged lately. puppies are a full time job. Especially when there are 7 !!
Anyway, they are all doing extremely well and all reserved! Will be going to their new homes on the the weekend of 28th /29th of Nov.
For those of you who know me on facebook or twitter Kathylewisart. You will know that we are waiting for puppies to arrive!!
We have practically got homes for all of them with a list of interested people. Its lovely when people telephone and even want to come and meet Gem. Some people want a boy, some want a girl and we still dont know how many she will even have :D
We are keeping a bitch and very much looking forward to the process of raising another puppy.
Not to mention how excited the children are!!!
People who have taken the time to come and see Gem's totally gorgeous and soppy temperament have been delighted by being able to feel puppies kicking inside that increasingly enormous stomach!!
Needless to say .. I will post photographs as soon as she has them.
She has had a significant drop in body temperature this morning so that should indicate they should be here in the next 24 hours !!!
Have been very busy working on this one and also getting ready for my dog to have her pups!!
So just a short update today with some more work in progress. In these last 2 photographs, you can see I am basically getting the main colours in situ and working on the tones.
Once I am happy with this stage, I will do this for all 3 horses and then get to the final fiddly stage.
During the basic horse underpaintings, I also re worked the background. It is essential that the background is completely finished before I get to the final stages of completing the horses. If I dont do this it will be impossible to work around the fine hairs on the edges and keep the consistancy of the paint true.
Till next time !!!
Carried on working on the first horse today. Got lots more shading in and beginning to sort out the lights and darks. This helps with determining what goes where as it literally puts the portrait into sections as you look at it. A bit like the method of using grids. I can now work out where to put individual details in relation to other areas of light and shadow.
Hopefully more tomorrow :D
Ok, got on a bit with this yesterday.
Started by putting down some very watery paint to give my some ideas of lights and darks and chestnut tones.
Then had to fiddle and started putting a little more detail into the first one! Ran out of time though as had to pick up the girls from school.
More today !! back soon..
Ok, new commission started. So far drawn out and transfered onto canvas. Didnt plan to do anymore today but couldnt stop myself from starting a background as have a free rein on this one :D
This is the 2nd portrait I have done for this customer so they are happy for me to decide how it will look best. I love that, allows me to free up my artistic hand and play a bit. If I dont like it, I will change the background once the horses are painted in. But for now , I have this vision in my head how I want it to look so I am going with the flow. These pics show the drawing , then adding in the basics of the background.
It will need a little more blending I think? and tidying up later.
ANy way ..as always comments welcome :D
Solo and Caprice, finished and approved !
For the first time. I have been asked to do an article in a magazine!
It's a drawing horses article in "Painter" magazine and will be out on 10th Sept 2009 (issue no 34 ) .
It goes throught the steps of drawing horses using basic shapes. Seperate advise on drawing eyes, legs and face included. Then finally bringing you onto more detailed muscle shaping and general shading. The final image is shown with a little colour using watercolour pencil.
You can purchase copies in good newsagents or online. :)
Ok... back from short break. Took kids to the Isle of Wight camping for the first time. They had a fantastic time and the weather was very kind to us. Even had to get out the suntan lotion!
Just started back at work and thought I would update you on the progress as it is today. I am getting cracking on finishing Caprice and Solo and should be finished by the end of this week. I am also starting on the next one too. So will post a photo of how that one is going so far.
This is not a great photo (sorry) the light is coming in from the workshop window and shining hard on Caprice's nose. Also its putting Solo a bit in the dark. The final photo will be more even.
Anyway here is where we are at !! comments welcome :)
Continued work on Solo and Caprice. Think (possibly) that Caprice may be done?.. not sure may find something to fiddle with when I look again.
Anyway, worked on more layers for Solo. Looking slightly more like him now. But a long way to go :)
As always, comments welcome. :)
Ok, I havnt quite finished Caprice but need to leave a few bits to dry before doing the last fiddly bits!!
Have obviously started on Solo!! He is looking kinda odd at the moment LOL!! Never mind. These are the base colours I put down to give my more guidance as I build up the layers later on.
Hope fully will get some more done tomorrow and will update you if there is time :)
Kathy Lewis Art - Welcome to my blog!
Welcome to my blog. I am an artist based in the South of England. I specialise in Equine Art, Horse and dog portraits.
I live in the New Forest area and am so lucky to live in a picturesque, beautiful part of the world which is so full of artistic inspiration.
I am a member of The Society of Equestrian Artists. The Equine Arts Guild, The Christchurch Arts Guild and The New Forest Arts Society.
If you would like to commission a portrait then please contact me via the Website www.kathylewisart.co.uk.
Look forward to hearing from you. Kathy
