K9 Ronin

Quite a bit more has happened since my last post, and I was lamenting to my Facebook friends how I haven't been keeping up with my blog. It's time consuming, but I really enjoy posting. So I headed over here to take care of some business!

I'll limit this post to the story surrounding this drawing of Ronin, a handsome and impressive K9 with the Sacramento County Sheriff's Department K9 Division.

I had wanted to create a drawing of a working K9 for quite some time and the ball started rolling at the 2014 Kaleo Fun Run, a fundraising event. K9 Ronin was there with his handler for a meet & greet with the public. I was able to take some great photos of Ronin, and this one became the reference for the drawing. It was exactly what I had in mind.

I'll post some of the in-progress images here, but there are more that you can see in this Facebook album, along with explanations of the various steps. My concept for this drawing was to add color to Ronin only. Because I knew I could get the dog right in this drawing (since animals are my subjects of choice), I worked on the car first. I didn't want to put all the work into the dog and then not have the car & concept work out the way I wanted. When I was happy with the way the car turned out, I went to work on Ronin. The only "color" on the car is where I took a grey art marker to knock back the lines at the edges of the car and the lettering on the door panel. I used my go-to #16 X-Acto blade for everything except in a few places (the STAY AWAY lettering and a few other parts of the car), where I used a tattoo needle to knock things back a bit.

The "all scratched" stage, ready for color on Ronin

This is a detail of the section under the dog's feet. That area took a long time to do. It's a process of scratching, re-inking with stipples & scribbles, re-scratching, re-stippling, etc., until I achieve the smooth transition that I want. A section of fur that size would take less time to do. There's not much need for re-working, if I get the fur right on the first pass, with some refining, that's it!

For a "zoomable" version of the finished drawing, click here.

When the drawing was finished, I contacted Ronin's handler to give him a print. I found out he had been promoted and Ronin has a new handler, so the two of them worked things out so I could meet them, Ronin, and nearly the entire K9 Division. It was a great experience and an honor. Ronin's former handler was presented with a shadowbox commemorating his time with the division and I presented him with the print of the drawing. It was a fantastic way to spend a few hours, and they brought out many of the dogs for me to photograph. You can see some of those photos in this Facebook album.

Me with Sergeant Gregory, Ronin's former handler

Me with Ronin

And finally, I sent this drawing to the International Society of Scratchboard Artists' 4th Annual Juried Exhibition  in Frederick, MD in July and am thrilled to announce that it received an Award of Excellence in the Open division. It didn't sell there, so it's back here in my studio where it will be on display for our annual Newcastle Art Studios Tour in October.

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Portraits of Max & Rosie - Cavalier King Charles Spaniels

These two portraits were commissioned by a friend for her daughter. Each is 5" x 5" on Ampersand Scratchbord™. After I completed the majority of the scratching on each portrait, I tinted them with colored ink. After adding the color, I do a little more scratching to pull out highlights and tidy things up.  I scanned more progress stages of Max's portrait than I did of Rosie's.

The finished portrait of Max

My reference photo

Transfer lines visible and some scratching done

More scratching . . .

Scratching mostly complete, prior to coloring

A time-lapse

A detail

Another detail

The finished portrait of Rosie

Scratching mostly complete, prior to coloring

A detail

My reference photo; I chose to leave out her body

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Past and Future

It's been over a month since my last post, I'm sorry for ignoring you, my dear blog . . .

I love blogging, but it's much quicker and more immediate to share on Facebook, and that's exactly what I've been doing. I realize and understand that many people are averse to Facebook, and I was too, at first, but now I really enjoy it. I have two pages there, one's my personal page (where I'll admit, I spend more time than I should), and the other is my professional art page. Even if you're not on Facebook, you can still see and browse my art page. So if you'd like to see what I'm doing on a more regular basis than what you will find on my blog, please check it out.

To flesh out this blog post, I'll share the condensed version of what's coming up and what I've been doing lately:

It's time for fall open studios tours and I'm participating in two of them. The first features a group of Newcastle-area artists. The second features a much larger group of artists in the western portion of Placer County. For details about both, see the invitation I just sent out to my subscribers via e-mail.

I entered two scratchboard drawings in the annual Art at the Classic juried art show at the Draft Horse Classic. One of the two, "Beginning Line Dancing" (a pair of foals) was awarded a First Place in its division (Miniature). They don't have a category where scratchboard fits, so I entered Miniature, which is based on size, not media. I also entered my drawing of Rocky the donkey, and although it was accepted but didn't place, it ended up on the web site and in the event program (click here to see the art section from the program).

I did two "tiger eggs" for the Sacramento Zoo's Wild Affair and one for the tigers' keeper. They all feature CJ the adorable tiger cub. And I had great reference photos, courtesy of the keeper. I'm making a run to the Zoo tomorrow to deliver those.

 

Completed pet portraits include these scratchboard drawings of two golden retrievers. Sampson is drawn on a white board. I used ink and ink washes (leaving the upper background white), and when that phase was complete, I tinted the dog with a light wash of watercolor. You can see the progress stages of this drawing in one of my Facebook albums.

Bear is on a black board. After completing the scratching, I tinted the drawing with ink pencils.

And then there's this - something very different for me. It was challenging and fun and I'm very pleased with how it turned out. "Glory and Power" is the Harley-Davidson "gun sight" logo on a 5" x 7" scratchboard. The only color on this is the flag, the rest is black & white. I created this piece for the The Pink Llama Gallery in Cedarburg WI, where I have some of my work. Tammie Strause, the PLG owner, put out a call for motorcycle art for an HD Anniversary Celebration that was held in nearby Milwaukee. I figured, what the heck, and gave it a shot. Thanks to Sandy O'Bleness for providing the reference photo and to her husband Mike for suggesting that the drawing should have a flag and/or eagle in it. I opted for the flag.

Well, that's a snapshot of what's been happening, check back here in a few weeks or visit Facebook for the next update!

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Assorted Pet Portraits

Catching up and sharing a number of pet portraits I've completed over the last few months:

Sirus the Great Dane. 5" x 7", ink on Ampersand Claybord (white scratchboard), with watercolor for his eye. Adopted from the Placer SPCA.


Sadie the Cocker Spaniel/Pomeranian mix. 4.75" x 5.5", mixed media on Ampersand Aquabord (ink, watercolor and color pencil)


Divot the Jack Russell Terrier. 2.5" x 3.5", miniature pencil drawing (aka an ACEO)


Kili Man Jaro the Savannah Cat. 5" x 7", ink on Ampersand Claybord (white scratchboard). Click here to find out more about this drawing.


The last three portraits are each 5" x 5", mixed media on watercolor Art Board (ink, watercolor and color pencil) and were created for the same client.

Brutus the Mastiff


Jinx the Doberman Pinscher


Eazy the Malinois

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Mini Scratchboard Drawings

These two small scratchboard drawings are available. I started them as demo pieces and I just finished the border collie. In fact, I still need to spray it with sealer, I'm just waiting for a day with minimal humidity! The llama has been finished for a little while. Each is $125 plus shipping (and tax if purchased in CA). You can either "buy now" via the PayPal button below the drawing, or contact me (annranlett [at] gmail.com) if you're not a fan of PayPal. Please note that I ship only to the US, UK, Australia or Canada. Price as shown below plus $5 additional shipping (sales tax will be added if you're a California resident). A small wooden easel is also included with either drawing.

Llama, Original Scratchboard Drawing, 3" x 5"
on Ampersand Scratchbord™

"Ship to" Country

US $125.00 USD Canada $128.00 USD UK/Australia $130.00 USD

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"Ready to Work" - Border Collie, 2.75" x 4.75"
on Ampersand Claybord™

"Ship to" Country

US $125.00 USD Canada $128.00 USD UK/Australia $130.00 USD

If you'd like to see other works I have available, please visit my "Available Art" album on Facebook.

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Wordless Wednesday

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My Poor, Neglected Blog

I haven't forgotten about my blog, and I'd really like to post more than twice a month, but that's just not happening, so I apologize! I've been more active on Facebook, so if you'd like to see my updates there, please become a fan.

Here's what's been in the hopper lately:

- Setting up my own permanent studio space (see photos in my Facebook album). I had a Grand Opening event earlier this month.

- This scratchboard drawing of our Border Collie, Magpie, for the International Society of Scratchboard Artists' 1st Annual Exhibition. I shot video of this drawing in progress and scanned it at various stages, so eventually there will be a video of the process.

- A logo (still in progress) for HartSong Ranch Animal Sanctuary

- Ostrich eggs for the Sacramento Zoo. See the lemur eggs in an earlier post. There was also this set of four roadrunners, a red panda and a thick-billed parrot. Still left to do this year are a zebra, a ring-tailed lemur and a jaguar.

- Formatting the Annual Report for FieldHaven Feline Rescue (just getting started on that)

- Finally finished a watercolor on Yupo painting of a beagle that I started as a demo years ago. This painting is available, more details here.

- Working through my list of assorted commissioned pet portraits. At the moment, I'm working on scratchboard drawing of a cat and a watercolor on Yupo painting of a goat.

- Contemplating what I'll do as a demo at the ISSA workshop

- Also contemplating what to enter in this year's "Art at the Classic" art show at the Draft Horse Classic. I'd better get cracking on that, because the deadline is July 1st.

That covers it for now, but it seems that something new & interesting always crops up!

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Wordless Wednesday

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Pit Bull Pup - Scratchboard Drawing

Just a quick blog update today. In my previous post, I shared an in-progress image of this guy. Now he's finished! This is a 5" x 5" drawing on Ampersand Scratchbord. After scratching to block things in, I re-inked with dots (stippling) and a few scribbles to darken certain areas. Then I scratched more to soften the stippling and achieve the final result.

I'm excited about framing this one and the companion piece (his sister, also in the previous post) because when I visited my favorite frame shop (Wholesale Art & Framing in Rocklin, CA), the owner helped me pick out a gorgeous grey suede mat. I never would have thought to go with grey, since I usually use black or white for my scratchboards, but the grey looks wonderful.

Here are a couple of details of the drawing:




Here's a video of the drawing process:

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Scratchy Connections and Art

I've been in the scratchboard zone recently and it has led to a lovely article about my work. Through sharing my scratchboard works on the Ampersand Art Product's Facebook page (and group page), I made a connection with their marketing gals and it resulted in this post on Ampersand's blog. I'm truly honored to be featured and I've been very impressed with Ampersand's support of their artist customers.

In addition to the scratchboard Papillon portrait I finished recently, I joined the International Society of Scratchboard Artists (ISSA) and I've been working on two companion pieces for the April Auburn Art Walk. This one, of an 8-week-old pit bull pup, is finished and awaiting completion of her brother's portrait.


Currently Untitled, Pit Bull Pup, 5" x 5", ink on Ampersand Claybord

I met and photographed these two and their five other siblings at A New Hope Animal Foundation in 2010. They were rescued along with their mother and have since found new homes. They were 8-weeks-old at the time I took photos. This drawing isn't finished, but is a little further along than this scan. I still need to work on his face.

Work in Progress, Pit Bull Pup, 5" x 5", Ampersand Scratchbord
As is typical for me, I'm juggling a few projects (in various media) at once. I'm also creating a series of photo boards for the Art Walk (see them in my Art Walk show catalog) and nearing completion on this mixed media portrait.


Commission Work in Progress, Caesar, 5" x 5", Watercolor Art Board

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Sparkles!

Sparkles is a papillon and her name really suits her - she's an active, enthusiastic, friendly dog. I've known her for many years and I don't think she's slowed down yet! Her owners have commissioned portraits of their other pets (Gizmo, a papillon mix and Foster, an orange tabby) and Sparkles has been on the "to do" list for a while. I had taken photos of her, but the photo we decided to use for the portrait is one that her owners provided some time after my photo shoot. Yet more time passed and I started working on black scratchboards. This portrait project finally gelled when I realized that a black scratchboard would be the perfect surface for Sparkles' portrait. I floated the idea past my clients, and although this was going to be a bit of an experiment, they agreed. This is the first time I've used my ink wash technique on a black board. I was confident that it would work, but there was no way to know until I actually did it!

I scanned various stages of the progress, which I'll explain with each image.

Here's the reference photo in both color & greyscale.


I transferred the image to the 5" x 7" board with white transfer paper and started scratching.


More scratching.


The first round of scratching is done.


Ink washes painted over the scratching. I used 3 shades of ink wash: light, medium and dark.


This is the final portrait. After the previous step, I scratched certain areas to lighten them after the ink wash. Then I used washes sparingly to fine-tune, and scratched in the whiskers and eye highlights.


Here's a detail of her face.


A time-lapse image.


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Materials used:
Saral Transfer Paper (White)
Ampersand Scratchbord
India Ink - Mixed with water to make the ink washes.
Technical Pen - For re-inking - mainly the eye area on this particular portrait.
X-Acto Knife with #11 Scalpel Blade - I used this for the majority of the scratch work.
X-Acto Knife with #16 Blade - I used this blade in a few places where I wanted to clear away larger areas of black.

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