Raven

A3, Acrylics on Board

Admittedly, not a pet but I wanted to show a looser style of painting. After visiting the Tower of London recently I was inspired to paint one of these guys.

Molly with Yellow Flowers

Oil on board, A3.

My Auntie and Uncle's cat, Molly. The background is entirely made up. In the original photo she is sitting on someone's lap.

Stanley

'Stanley' 20 x 25 cm (estimated), oil n board

Christmas present for my friend of her pug, Stanley.

Blue

Blue, 20 x 25 cm (estimate), oil on board

Christmas present for my friend. It was a challenge to paint my first ever bird...and his reflection!

Dogs in the Snow

'Dogs in the Snow' A3 oil on board

 Commission for my neighbours. It will be a Christmas present for their Gran. I hope she likes it as much as they did!

Tia

'Tia' A3, Oil on board

Commission for my Auntie of one of the family cats, Tia. She is a beautiful cat, I hope I did her justice.

'Tia' original photograph

 I thought it might be interesting to show the original photo. In the painting I made a few changes, you may notice the leaves are not 100% accurate because I am not crazy enough to paint them so, but I do hope they are realistic enough. I also widened Tia's pupils as painting them as they are in the photo looked very strange.

The colours of the painting are also more like the original photo, I just haven't got the hang of photographing paintings yet. For example her fur is less red and the sky is a much paler blue.

Poppy

'Poppy' Oil on board 20 x 25 cm

My English Springer Spaniel, Poppy. She is much missed.

Sophie

'Sophie' Oil on board 25 x 20 cm

Commission for my grandparents of their cat, Sophie. Painted from two photos merged together as they wanted a full body pose but had their hearts set on using a close up photo I had taken previously of her face.

Poppy

'Poppy' Oil on board 24 x 20 cm 

This is an old uni piece and my first proper photorealist painting. I'm still pleased with it though I've had a lot more practice since and I know what I would do now differently if I were to give it another go. My springer spaniel, Poppy.

Butterflies

'Butterflies' Watercolour, cropped.

This is a commission I did for my Dad to give as a wedding present. My strength isn't in painting with watercolours and my chosen subject would never be butterflies but I think I did an okay job. The blue sky and yellows are much brighter in reality.

I hope they liked it!

Lily

'Lily' Oil on board, 20 x 14 cm

My cat, Lily, painted in oils on board. This took about 7 hours roughly. I need to start timing how long I spend painting. I wanted to copy the photograph as closely as possible but without spending too long on the background. 

Milly

'Milly' Oil on board, 20 x 25 cm

A more detailed painting of Milly. This one took about 10 hours or so to do, most of which was colour mixing!

Milly Oil Sketch

'Milly' Oil on board, 50 x 40 cm, cropped.

My gran's cat, Milly. Painted in a much looser style than the previous one of Lily because I did this one for fun and as a bit of a break from the photorealist style of the last few paintings. It is also a lot bigger which makes it much easier to be more gestural with the brushstrokes.

This is a slightly cropped version.

Work Experience

I recently did a few days work experience at the card company Carte Blanche, who make the Tatty Teddy cards, Blue Nose Friends and many more well-known cards.

They are one of the few companies who employ full-time permanent artists and it was very interesting to see how the company worked. The artists are responsible for drawing the characters and the standards to which each drawing must comply are rigorous. This is because every drawing needs to look like it could have been drawing by any of the artists working there.

The original Tatty Teddies are still hand drawn with a pencil so this was my first task. It apparently takes around three months of practice to be able to draw a Teddy exactly right and as I had three days this was a deadline I was never going to meet, despite trying very hard. My first Tatty Teddy was too timidly drawn, too light, little to no shading with the direction of the pencil lines too obvious. My second was better but this time I was a little too lax with the stitches and they came out far too dark. So I had high hopes for my third, thinking that if I could get it somewhere between the two previous attempts it would be good. Eventually it did turn out quite well. However, it is slightly clumsy in places because of how unused I was to the softness of the pencil and the technique of drawing the bear. The soft shading balanced with the 'ticks' of his fur is something that I had problems with because to shade you smudge - which smudges the already drawn ticks which then need to be redrawn. So they became overworked and fat.

Concentration and attention to detail are a must. These drawings took me around three hours to do, each! And they are very small, probably the same size you would see them on a normal sized card. Plus I didn't need to draw the poses, these were already drawn out and I used a lightbox to transfer them.

I also learnt about how important it is that the bear is very well defined in what he can and can't do. It means his personality doesn't change from card to card or toy to toy but stays constant and also that, from a commercial point of view he is marketed well to the intended customers. Understanding the brand is key!


Outside of the studio it was fascinating to be given the wider picture. I got to see the processes involved in getting the drawings put on to cards and also the designs for new toys and for packaging. I talked to a few people who explained what they do and how they got to use their creativity in their work. And from working in the artist's studio I got an idea of the strict deadlines they have to meet and their thoughts on what they do.

Overall it was a great experiences, and whilst I may not have had the most affection for the bear when I started I definitely finished with a huge appreciation for the people I worked with who were very friendly, helped me out and made me feel very welcome! Plus, I even kinda like the bear now. Kinda.