Elephant drawing: progress

It's been a while since i picked up the pencils to produce a big piece but i have to admit that it feels like 'coming home'.Whilst it's always a long slog with graphite and i need the patience of a saint to get through it,i nonetheless feel strangely content and in control using the medium.The oil's have been very pleasant to use and when they've worked ive been thrilled with the results but they still feel a little hit and miss compared to that feeling of certainty i get with graphite.Anyway to get back to this piece,ive more or less completed the head with only a little more detail to add.once ive done this i'm going to work on the body and legs of the elephant before tackling it's trunk as ive got some lovely darker tones to work in behind the trunk and tusks and i want to establish those darker tones first to ensure the trunk and tusks will stand out.

UK Coloured pencil society 10th anniversary exhibitionhttp://http://www.ukcps.co.uk/london2011/index.php

If you love coloured pencil art then there is only one exhibition to see this weekend.The UKCPS is holding a 10th anniversary celebration exhibition at The Methodist central hall,Westminster,London until the 1st october.The exhibition features the very best exponents of the medium from the Uk and guest artists from the USA and the genre's on display include wildlife art,botanicals,animals,portraiture,still life and landscapes as well as experimental modern pieces.During the exhibition there are some of the finest coloured pencil workshops ever seen in the uk from some of the leading coloured pencil artists.If your'e in or around London then this show is a must see,for more details of the show and the UKCPS click on the link

Switch to graphite

After a break from graphite for a while,ive re-started work on my Elephant drawing thats been languishing on the board for several weeks.I had a tough time working on my latest oil painting and was starting to feel a little jaded and so rather than destroy all my work up to that point i decided to switch back to my comfort zone for a while.The background has been laid in roughly to appear out of focus and the first part of the elephant completed is the ear and here ive layered the graphite using grades H thru to 2B to get the lovely shadow areas.there will be some lovely sharp contrasts in tone in this piece hopefully bringing this lovely bull elephant to life.

Start of a new oil

This is the Alkyd underpainting for my latest piece.In this painting i'm going to attempt to increase the scale of my work as all my previous paintings are pretty tiny in oil painting terms.This one will measure 17" x 11" ,a step up in scale for me but still a fairly small painting.The subject is a Caracal,a cat that i havn't seen too many paintings of and therefore a good opportunity to try something different.

Brown Hare study 13.25"x9" oil on board

Finished this little painting this afternoon.I'm happy that my oil painting adventure is progressing and indeed getting a little faster.ive tinkered a little with some added fur details,added the whiskers and of course the eye.i like to leave eyes till last as a little treat as i like to see the whole piece come to life at the last moment.i shall leave it on the easel for a day or two in case the urge to tinker comes upon me but i'm pretty happy with the result.

Brown Hare update

The first detail coat of oils is now complete and this painting will be put aside for a day or two to dry.The next step will be to add a final detail coat of oils to refine the fur details,add whiskers and little touch's here and there and of course to complete the eye.

Brown Hare oil progress

Progress has been slow on this little Hare painting due to out of studio committments but ive nearly completed the detail coat of oil on the head of the animal

Two new works underway

Bull African elephant pencil drawing

Brown Hare study oil painting
Ive finally managed to get a little studio time to make a start on two new images.The first is going to be a largish pencil drawing of a bull african elephant and will no doubt take me forever to complete.I have started to lay in the background in a loose manner and have made it look slightly out of focus with the use of a paper blender,the intention being to tighten up in the foreground only,although i still havnt quite worked out how to make grass look anything other than sketch-like as yet.Lots of practice on spare scraps of paper should see me come up with the solution when the times right.My second image is of a Brown Hare and is in oils.i havnt painted for a while and so i decided to try and ease myself back into the swing of things with a simple study piece.the underpainting has been completed in Alkyd oils and for the first time in 15 years i'm using pure oil paints to render the detail coats.i had forgotten what a joy real oil paints are to work in,quite apart from the fantastic smell!

i still have a few exhibitions on-going and so progress is likely to be a little slow at first but i'll post an update as soon as there's something more significant to see