Martina Newton Art - Works in progress . . .

Post archive

+ Gemma, short-haired tabby and white (1989-2003) (27/05/2010 - 12:08:01)

+ A little bit more of Toffee . . . (10/05/2010 - 18:43:48)

+ Toffee: the first few stages (28/04/2010 - 21:20:22)

Gemma, short-haired tabby and white (1989-2003)

A little bit more of Toffee . . .

More depth added now, trying to bring out the muzzle so it looks 3D. A little bit more detail on the eyes, but still quite a way to go . . .

Toffee: the first few stages

I've decided to start this portrait a little differently beginning with a dark background. It looked a little alarming in a messy burnt umber, but the latest edition of Leisure Painter had an article showing a step-by-step of a painting of a springer spaniel, which I thought I'd use for practice.

Working from dark to light seems to give a good impression of the fur closer to the skin. I've used titanium white followed by sand followed by mixtures of mars black, white and yellow ochre. I think it'll need several coats to give it more depth of colour and tone.

Buddy, from study to canvas

I decided to give my new Cryla acrylics a try-out and thought I'd transfer my practice piece of Buddy onto a canvas. This was the first stage - a sketch in 2B pencil on a canvas 40 x 50 cm.
I thought blue for the background as I could then use some greyish blues in his coat to bring the two together. Next, I blocked-in some of the main colours, including some red on his ears, no doubt inherited from his Irish setter mum!

He's taking shape now; I've used a range of greys, browns and whites to give him the different contrasts he has in his, what looks like, predominantly black coat. It's amazing just how many colours a black dog can have in their coat.
Here he is finished for now. I've left him on the easel, so might add a few hairs here and there. This was taken in quite gloomy daylight so the colours don't look as rich as the ones above. Overall, though, a good likeness of Buddy the 'Border Setter', as we like to call him.

Rosie & Gracie, stage-by-stage

I first sketched an outline of the dogs, then, using grey velour paper, I put the sketch over the top and with the lid of a pen, lightly pressed through to give an indent. I wasn't sure whether I'd be able to rub out pencil marks, so this seemed the way to go.

I lightly applied the base colours with Rembrandt conte pastels.

Rosie's complete and now to continue with Gracie. For the detail I used Faber-Castell pitt pastel pencils. I worked mainly from left to right in order to avoid smudging, but I also covered up sections with clean paper to rest my hand on.

Here they are - both finished - ready in time for Mothers' Day!

Now off to the framers for mount, backboard and cellophane.

Rosie & Gracie, Rescue Greyhounds

This is Gracie, a retired rescue greyhound. She's cheeky, a prolific food thief and a bit of a 'tomboy'.

This, on the other hand, is Rosie; the 'lady'
of the household.
Also a retired rescue greyhound; a
beautiful brindle colour which I'm
looking forward to drawing

All finished . . .

Here he is . . . white picture mount, backed and covered in cellophane to keep him clean. I thoroughly enjoyed drawing him - he looks a real character.

Just the ears and bib to go . . .

Another two hours or so and most of the detail is there. I'm finding this much easier now I've got a daylight bulb in my lamp; much easier on the eyes and no distracting colours thrown onto the page. I've just got the detail of the ears to do. I left these as they look a slightly different texture to the body fur - more silky - and the curls are a tad tighter. The bib, also, needs some shading as it's too stark as it is.

Progress on Bertie

I'm happy with the sketches and now have transferred the outline to some Fabriano 50% cotton rag paper. I've not used this before, so a great learning experience all round. The pencils I'm using are Faber-Castell and Derwent graphite.

This is progress about 2 hours from the outline. Still a fair few layers to do in order to get the depth.

This photo shows the original image, although I'm using a couple in order to check between features that aren't too clear.