Tawney Owl Continued

I've continued to work on the tawny owl painting slowly down the body. I decided the tail feathers looked hard to work out so I'm leaving those for last.
I'm thinking about adding the stump in graphite as I don't want to take the focus away from the owl. I'll have a play in Photoshop before I decide.
I've decided to do a series of owls as I have some nice reference photographs of both the barn and little owls.

Horse in Watercolour

I'm still alive I've just been busy dealing with self assessment returns. I should be back to normal posting later this week.

A Robin in Watercolour

A few months ago I painted a robin in watercolour but was never happy with the crop. I got the original out today and tightened it up, it looks better now, to me anyway.

Horse in Watercolour

I decided to have a complete change of subject.
For the last two years I have visited Bramham 3 day event and taken lots of photographs of horses in action.
This horse was just jumping out of the water which you will be able to see when I paint his legs.
I'm also having a change of medium, this is watercolour on a hot press watercolour paper.

Persian Kitten Part 2

Very slooow progress.

I have a pair of Bluetits going in and out of my new nest box ( at least I assume it's a pair).

If they do rear a brood the baby birds will be sitting in comfort because the adults are lining the box with dog hair. Roma has decided to cast her coat so I've been putting handfulls of soft undercoat in the hedges for the birds. It seems to be popular because it soon gets taken. Roma makes sure there is plenty to go round, she helpfully leaves huge amounts all over the carpets which manages to spread everywhere.

Persian Kitten in Watercolour

This is part of my newest cat painting, a Persian kitten with tons of attitude. The kitten has a great deal of very soft coat so I decided to use watercolour to portray it. I thought that I could build up layers leaving them pale and indistinct in the areas where the fur is very soft and fluffy. I seem to have cropped the left side in the scanner but the whole body will be on the finished painting. I'm using Arches hot pressed watercolour paper as I wanted a very smooth surface that I am used to working on.

Puma in Watercolour

The eagle has been put to one side while I painted this puma in watercolour.
It's 8 x 10 on a Stathmore paper I brought back from Canada. I just have the chest to finish and add some whiskers.
The paper is really white which is working well for me.

Red Tabby Cat

Another cat I'm working on.

This is mainly watercolour on Arches Hot Press paper, approximately 7 x 5 inches. I've left the fur on the back undefined so that I can put all the detail in the face. I'm thinking that I might do a bigger version of this one as I like the pose.

Ragdoll Cat in Watercolour

This is a bit bigger than my recent work, 8 x 10 in watercolour on Arches paper.

I took the photograph at last years Supreme Cat Show. It is a Ragdoll and I think it's coat colour is Tortie Tabby, please feel free to correct me if I'm wrong.

Another Tabby Kitten in watercolour and coloured pencil

This is to be my final feline picture for the Society of Feline Artists 2009 exhibition. It is the same kitten as last time but in a different pose.
I only really have tomorrow to finish this one and the other watercolour portrait because I'm working next week until the courier collects them on Thursday.

Watercolour Cat Continued

I'm still enjoying the watercolour and still hoping to get this done in time for the SOFA exhibition.
For the third year running one of my paintings has been included in the SOFA brochure, this year it's 'Moody Blue'. My friend Katherine has gone one better and had her painting included on the front page.
Here's the link to the post Katherine wrote about the 2009 SOFA exhibition.
"Meet the Kittens" on the SOFA front cover

Christie's on the iPhone

We bought my younger son an iPhone for his birthday in the hope that he'll keep in touch when he starts studying medicine in London later this year.

I knew he had a lot of applications on it and have been quite impressed with one or two of them.

Last night he showed me that Christie's Auction House now have a free application available.

It's pretty amazing as it features catalogues with high quality images. I looked at several pieces of artwork and was able to rotate them and zoom in without losing detail. It also gives an estimate of what the piece is likely to bring at auction.

Eventually they hope you will be able to bid at auction using the phone.

Link:- Christie's iPhone Application

Watercolour Tabby Cat Continued

I'm finding that using watercolour is adding a softness to my fur, probably because the strokes are less defined.

Tabby Cat and Robin

I've continued to work on my Robin and started what will probably be my lkast cat for this years SOFA exhibition.

Both pieces are watercolour, including watercolour pencils and both are around 12 x 16 on Arches paper.

Robin in Watercolour

The mallard was completed and delivered to NEWA, it's now a matter of waiting to see if it gets selected for the exhibition.

Following completion of the Mallard I've started a Robin in watercolour. This time I'm going to paint in some branches, fading them out towards the edges and leave the rest of the background white.
This is only part of the painting, the part that fit on my scanner.

Another Watercolour Cat finished

Worked on this one last night and finished him. I'm moving on to a different subject now, will it be a fox or an owl? it really should be the mallard.

All my dogs have decided to shed their coats which means an extremely hairy house and no shows, unless I enter them in the Smooth rather than Rough Collie classes. This is rather disappointing because I enjoy the summer shows. We could still go without the dogs but I always feel wrong without at least one dog.

Another Watercolour Cat

I'm getting ready to do a larger work in watercolour but decided to do another small one first.

Again this is 2.5 x 3.5 inches. I have to say that the more I use the watercolour the less I'm reaching to add something else to the mix.

Tabby Cat in Watercolour - Finished

Click here to bid on this painting.
I've completed the little cat in watercolour. This time I added very little coloured pencil and really enjoyed the painting.

Tabby Cat in Watercolour

This is another small one, a tabby cat in watercolour.

We bought a new desk today which my eldest son assembled, this meant that the computer had to be disconnected and moved. It was touch and go whether the Internet ever worked again when the nest of cables was revealed for the first time in years. He put sticky labels on each cable as he undid it, unfortunately one of his helpers didn't realise the significance and followed behind removing them.