Pet Portraits work in progress blog of dogs, cats and horses in pastel

It has been so long since I blogged, Melanie and I have been really busy in the studio these last few weeks and my blog has slipped. Melanie seems to keep up with hers but I do have difficulty it doesn’t come easy, she is much more organised than I.

So here are a few of the portraits I have been working on. The oil horse was for a birthday gift a few weeks ago in the US and it arrived on time. This was for a returning customer and they were thrilled, I was glad to be able to get it to them on time.

This next one is a pastel portrait for a client in the US of their cat called Mango. I really enjoyed working on this one, I love portraying cats and this was such an unusual colour. This client has ordered before, I portrayed Gizmo for them which you will find on the blog a few months ago.

This is my latest horse portrait and its just about to go to the framers to be framed, im just waiting on the client to decide which frame they would like. Its a large portrait at 20 x 16 in pastel on velour.

I have completed two cats for a Canadian client and I will scan these today and hopefully blog them here too. I also will try to keep the blog more up to date. I still have about 4 more over seas portraits to do which need to be completed before the last posting date on the 10th of December so im trying to work quite long hours at the moment to make sure everyone is completed and the correct amount of time is spent on them.

I hope you enjoy viewing them.

I haven’t bloged for a while, as my parents came to visit for 4 days so we took some time off while they were here. This is a portrait i completed before they arrived, which was an 18 x 24 portrait of a beautiful horse. It safely with its owner and will be a perfect portrait to remember him by.The colours maybe slightly different to the original however it should give everyone a good idea of what its like. It is in pastel on velour obviously!

I have also completed an oil painting of a horse which i will hoepfully blog tomorrow and i have startd another large horse portrait in pastel which will hopefully be on here by next week.

I have now finished my portrait of Brady, the final scans are below. I think that the inclusion of the blanket with his name on is very effective, it makes a change from the usual ground shadow or vignet of grass.

These are the fist two stages of a pastel portrait of a Yorkie named Brady. The client requested that I depict Brady sitting on his blanket which has his name embroidered onto the fabric.

I had totally forgotten to blog the final scan of the spaniel pet portrait, which you will find work in progress of, if you scroll down or look at the previous page. I’m normally quite organised with the blog and keeping things together, but im working non stop on portraits at the moment as both Melanie and I are fully booked for Christmas and so a few things are getting forgotten in the studio! I also have a framed photo of the spaniel too, the client was over the moon with the portrait and it was presented when all the family where there too which made it a very special occasion.

Hi Everyone,

As you can see from the picture below the client asked me to make a few changes to the portrait. When they saw it they felt they would like the cat depicted in the garden instead of where he was sitting on the floor and this wasn’t too difficult for me to change as there were no changes compositionally. I really dont mind making changes to the portrait once the client has seen the final scan or photo. I always ask if they feel i have captured the subject and only on rare occasions is a small amendment needed.

When using velour paper it is almost impossible to remove any mark or pastel line if you make a mistake. So when I draw the initial lines of the subject I need to make sure they are correct and double check before I lay each mark down, constantly looking at the reference photo, to make sure its going to be in the correct place, otherwise marks are impossible to remove.

I think that the grass enhances the portrait and the clisents are delighted with the results.

This is my most recent portrait of a lovely cat in pastel. It is for a Christmas present and since our return back from our break away I am pretty much fully booked now for Christmas portraits I am starting to offer gift vouchers and gift voucher webpages to my clients. I am hoping I can get all the portraits done in time, it is a very difficult decision knowing how long portraits are going to take, working out how much time there is left before the last posting date, particularly for over seas portraits. Some portraits go smoothly but some portraits can often take longer than expected. Fingers crossed all goes well and i wont be happy until everyone is completed and received!

Hi All,

My framer has emailed me a photo of one of my portraits that he framed for me, and I have added it below. His studio set up is fantastic and you may be able to see the reflection of his camera in the glass, the camera itself is mounted on the ceiling so that he can get the perfect shot and angle so as not to distort the painting, and the camera is connected to his computer. The only draw back is that there is a slight reflection of the camera but it is flawless on my oil paintings that are framed. A very clever idea.

This was a lovely portrait to produce as it incorporated the clients teddy in with the portrait. It was another 12 x 10 portrait in pastel on velour and this was for a returning client. Hope you like it!

This is my latest portrait of Beau who sadly lost an eye to glaucoma and the client wanted me to portray him like this, as this was how she remembered him the last few years of his life. I really enjoyed portraying Beau and I know that Beau’s owner will treasure the portrait for many years to come.