Rocky & Alfie

A while ago, when the second of my nephew's two dogs passed away, my sister asked me if I'd be able to do a painting for him that included both dogs together. Obviously I agreed to do what I could and asked her to send me some photo's. 

When I received the photo's I was far from happy. Rocky, the small collie, was never looking at the camera, and all the pictures of Alfie, the German Shepherd, had his fur drenched with water and plastered down. I couldn't see any way I could get a decent painting from the references I had. I considered using artistic licence to paint Alfie dry, with ears up and soft, fluffed up fur, but doubted my artistic skills would stretch that far.

I spoke to my sister about my dilemma and suddenly things didn't seem so hopeless. She explained that Alfie was a terror for diving in the river. Every time he went out for a walk it was his destination of choice and he always came home soaked through. Even other walkers my nephew met along the way knew Alfie as the dog that swam in the river. Getting wet was his character and it would be nice to remember him that way. As for Rocky, despite his strong name he was a timid dog who looked up to Alfie and followed him everywhere .... except in the river.

Other animal portraits on my web site

Eagle

Gorilla

Tiger

More Wood Burning

 

For my third attempt at Pyrography (wood burning) I thought I'd try a more complete scene, with greater detail and tonal values than my first two experimental efforts. I chose this view of a cottage beside the Grand Union Canal because its a scene I've drawn and painted several times before, and because it offers a wide range of textures ... water, brick, foliage.

I knew I wouldn't be able to burn this freehand so used Carbon paper to trace out some rough outlines as a guide. Again I found the nib of the burner 'snagging' on the wooden surface. Most of the time this was quite annoying but it actually helped when it came to drawing the water. Most of the drawing was approached in much the same way as drawing with a pen, the main difference being the speed of movement .... slow moves producing thicker, deeper lines and fast moves producing thinner, shallower marks.

Wood burning is quite an enjoyable process so now I need to buy myself some better wood so I can tackle something proper.

Previous posts on Pyrography

Pyrography
First attempt

Pyrography
Second attempt

The same scene drawn
with Pen & Ink

My First box

 

As I mentioned a while ago, it is my intention to use Marquetry to make a Jewellery/Keepsake box for my granddaughter. Having settled on which method I shall use, and having done a practice piece of the main 'character' for the box, it is time to turn my thoughts to the box itself. 

Being a novice I have many questions about how to veneer a box so clearly the sensible course is to do another practice run. To that end I picked up a small and extremely cheap plain soft-wood box from a local discount store. 

To start I removed the imitation brassware, measured the box carefully, and then spent several hours drawing out a design on paper, a task that proved to be less easy than I expected. Obviously, had I thought this through properly, I could have used the 'character' for the lid and covered BOTH practice sessions at the same time, but hindsight is a wonderful thing.

Cutting out the veneer shapes from the template was relatively straightforward and I applied them to the sides first and the lid last. I sanded the edges as I went and ran into a zillion issues I hadn't expected. At times I was wrestling with glued shapes and getting more on me than the box. 

Gradually the box took shape and all that remained was to apply a polish and reattach the brassware. 

The end result is far from perfect and there is no question that a practice run was well worth the effort. There are things about this box I definitely want to get better the next time around.

Here are previous posts on Marquetry

Second attempt
Different technique

Flower design
for drawer front

Practice
for Major Project

Artistic Licence

 As many of you know, my favourite medium after Graphite Pencil is Pen and Ink. Now there's a thing .... why do we call it "Pen and Ink" ..... what use is a pen without ink? LOL. 

Anyway, I was taken to draw a snow scene using just my Pigma Micron Fineliners and chose this Old Oast House as a subject. The reference photo contained no snow so all the "white stuff" is a figment of my imagination. Isn't Artistic Licence wonderful?

More Pen and Ink Drawings

Boat at Craster

Canal Cottages

Paddle Steamer

Lighthouse in storm

 

Following on from my previous 'stormy sea' drawings, I decided it was time to try another one. Scouring the 'net I came across a fabulous photograph of a lighthouse at dusk taken by John Lund, and his photo ticked all my boxes of crashing waves, high seas and lots of atmosphere. To avoid copyright issues I dropped John a line and asked if he would kindly give me permission to use his photograph for reference, and he agreed.

The drawing is on my usual Daler-Rowney Heavyweight paper and was drawn with my favourite mechanical pencil containing 2B leads. I used a regular 8B pencil to touch in some of the darkest areas. Before I started I gave much thought to the square format of this picture. I used my image editing software to crop the photo into a landscape format but found that the reduction in sky and sea reduced the impact of the lone lighthouse .... the scene needs the big sky as much as it does the big sea, to drive home the smallness of the lighthouse when surrounded by the elements.

More Seascape Drawings

Force Ten

Flamborough Lifeboat 1971

Bridlington Lifeboat

Practice for major project

While I was working away on my last Marquetry piece I was pondering the way 'pictures' can be made using wood veneers and my mind drifted to decorated antique boxes. The thought processes went round and round, as they do, and I thought it would be nice to buy a couple of small plain wood boxes to decorate. From there, how do you veneer boxes; veneer the sides first or the top; what designs could I do; what to do with the finished boxes ... and on, and on. 

Out of the melee of sparking brain impulses came the idea that I'd like to decorate a box for my 6-year Granddaughter. Knowing that I didn't have sufficient knowledge or experience to just dive in and produce a nice box, I decided I'd have to do some practicing first. My final target was to produce for her a jewellery box with a picture of her favourite cuddly toy on the lid, with sides decorated with Unicorns, Ice Skates and her name. So the first objective was to have-a-go at creating the cuddly toy.

I'm quite pleased with how it turned out but there's a technique called Sand Shading that would help give the face more definition. I'll have a go at that when I'm doing the box proper. 

Here are previous posts on Marquetry

Marquetry
First attempt

Second attempt
Different technique

Flower design
for drawer front

Steam engine 41218

Once upon a time, as a teenager, my friends and I used to go train-spotting. Sometimes, as a special treat, we would take a packed lunch and catch a train ride to another station a stop or two down the line so we could 'spot' other trains. One very regular engine on those runs was an Ivatt class 2MT 2-6-2T No 41218.  It was built at Crewe works in September 1948 and remained in service until July 1965 when it was withdrawn and ultimately scrapped.

Talking about trains with my brother-in-law, who used to do the same runs and is immensely enthusiastic about steam engines, we reminisced fondly over 41218. Fired with interest I did some googling and found a couple of photo's of similar engines of the same class. I used them for reference to recreate the engine in graphite.

While drawing this engine I took photo's along the way and created a Work In Progress page for anyone interested.

Other Work-In-Progress drawings on my site

Sunset over Venice
(Pencil)

Eilean Donan Castle
(Pen and Ink)

Gorilla
(Charcoal)