Swan painting-underpainting complete

This morning ive completed the underpainting of the swan and its reflection.It now needs to be put to one side to dry thoroughly before I start work on the detailed coats of paint and really strengthen the colours.

Swan painting progress

As usual ive got several images on the go at the moment and after finishing my pencil drawing of a leopard I took a few days to prepare a new drawing,this time a snow leopard cub,and ive sketched out the initial drawing and started the long process of toning the background in layers of graphite.there's not much to see so far as its all a little dull until I start work on the cat itself at which point i'll post something.Ive reverted back to my mute swan painting during the ever-shorter daylight hours and so far ive completed the water and have now made a start on the underpainting of bird and reflections.This is the first rough coat of loosely applied oils where I define areas of the bird and start to work up colours and shadows on the plumage.I'll move onto the underpainting of the reflections next and when complete make sure it seems to be 'sitting right' before I go ahead with the second,more detailed,coat of oils to completion.

Young Leopard portrait 12.5" x 11" pencil

Here is the completed pencil study of a beautiful Young African Leopard,i hope you've all enjoyed watching this gorgeous cat come together.

Leopard drawing further progress

The young Leopard portrait is coming along nicely on the drawing board today and so here's a quick update from the studio.

Young Leopard drawing progression

The obvious difference between this image and my last update is the completion of the cats eye's.often when working in graphite I leave the subjects eye's until last as the sort of 'icing on the cake' at the end of the process and watch it come to life but in this case the engaging stare of the leopard is the key to the drawing and so I opted to complete them earlier than my norm in order to judge the effectiveness of there gaze.i have to admit that I was very pleased and very aware of the way they stare at me as i'm trying to complete the rest of the drawing,so job done I guess!.still a fair way to go and i'm working on the right side of the cats face at the moment,i can already see areas that will require some minor adjustments but thus far all's good.

Works in progress

                                                                      Mute Swan

                                                                         Leopard
Since my last post of my Leopard drawing in progress ive done a little more work,adding in more of the cats spots,completing the second ear and nose and now i'm starting to gradually add layers of tone to the cats fur which will give it shape and form before completing the fur details.Progress is gradual but slow as i'm also working on a couple of oil paintings simultaneously as well and now that theres something to see ive posted the first image of my new Mute swan painting.i started with the water and have completed a couple of layers of oil here and am happy that the lovely colour I wanted has been achieved.all that will remain to do to the water will be to add a final glaze or two to subtly alter the colour and give depth.its now been put to one side to dry before I make a start on the swan itself.

Start of a new drawing

This is the start of a new graphite project that will,i hope,result in a paired drawing for my very popular and almost sold out 'Shadow Hunter' drawing of a black leopard.The subject of this drawing is a delightful young African leopard and the main focus of the drawing will be the eye contact between viewer and cat.my initial rough pencil drawing has been traced onto stretched HP watercolour paper and as is usual for me ive made a start on the background first.in this case the background will consist of layers of abstractly applied graphite in a blurry effect primarily designed to 'lift' the subject from the paper and add some much needed depth.once the initial layers of graphite have gone in I decided to plot in a few darks to help me judge tonal depth more easily.the obvious darks in this case were the spots of the cat and so a few of those have been added in.my darks are not just made up from a single soft pencil they are layered from several grades of pencil to help build solid unbroken tone and ultimately more depth to the finished drawing.having got some darks in place I then made a start on the ears of the cat,for no other reason than I find this the most challenging part of a cats anatomy to get right and therefore tackle it head-on.in the studio photo you can see ive completed one ear and have started the layering process on the other.i hope it wont be too long before I can post some more progress on this drawing,i also have a couple of oil paintings started but in very early stages as yet and so posts on the drawing will be intermingled with oil painting updates too.i hope you'll enjoy watching these all come together and welcome any feedback

Sumatran tiger 28" x 20" oil on canvas

my latest oil painting is now complete,as usual it will sit in the studio for a while whilst I determine whether there's anything else I need do to it.now for a day off to catch up with all the little jobs ive been putting off before I get stuck in on new projects.

an almost complete painting

Having had this tiger painting kicking about the studio for a couple of months now in various states of completion and often wondering whether i'd ever get it finished I am relieved to report that it is now tantalisingly close to completion.i am very pleased indeed that ive almost completed successfully all the oil projects I hand prepared canvases for when I took delivery of my enormous roll of canvas a couple of months back.i think i'm borderline ocd when it comes to completing projects before starting new ones but ive finally got around to stretching two new canvases for my next projects,however my inspiration for paintings changes with the weather these days and ive already got half a dozen other images on my mind!. I hope to post the completed painting in the next day or two.