See What Karen is Painting on the Easel
(Updated 16th February 2012 )
Pet Portrait of Porsche / Portrait of Matthew & Zulu & Charlie / Highland Cows / Portrait of Jakob
(**some photos may differ slightly in colour depending on changing light in the studio**)
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"Highland Cows" Pastel on Sennelier Pastel Card 750x420mm
A large pastel painting for an upcoming pastel exhibition. I used to work in the Highlands of Scotland many years ago, and it has long been on my wishlist to paint these beautiful hairy beasts, am enjoying this painting immensely. The initial composition has been Photoshopped from 3 separate photographs of the 2 cows, and a Scottish scene (all my own original photos). Here is the progress so far...
Most of the background and foreground have been completed by this stage, although this may be altered slightly once the painting is almost finished, I will assess how it all balances then. But I have to be patient and await some new pastels in the correct colours to carry on with the cows, they have such a unique colour and I didn't want to proceed with the painting with the wrong pastel colours.
The fist cow is almost complete apart from some tweaking here and there, which will be done at the end of the painting.
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"Matt, Zulu & Charlie" - Oils on Canvas (24x30in)
My largest commissioned portrait so far, and I am really looking forward to the challenge! A lovely reference photo of Matt with his two gorgeous black labradors.
The photo has been photoshopped from several different photographs to include Zulu & Charlie
and to combine the best photos of all three of them. This is the beauty of Photoshop (and also a painting!), when trying to get a reference photo of 3 subjects including two lively dogs!
So far I have laid down a ground layer of oil paint to cover the white of the canvas, and begun with an underpainting of Matt and his camouflage jacket.
Painting Matt's camouflage jacket has been quite a challenge! This is the initial underpainting of the jacket and second layer on Matt's face/hat.
A rough background has now been painted, the colour of the background often evolves throughout the painting.
There will be another layer on Matt's face and jacket to be painted yet to bring up some more detailing.
Working on the detailing in Matt's face here...
adding some more depth in the shadow & highlight areas, and completing the details in the eyes, eyebrows and mouth area...
as well as a subtle hint of some stubble on his face
Another layer of oil paint on Matt's camouflage jacket... this may be toned down yet, I will wait to the painting is nearly complete to see the balance. The underpainting on Zulu & Charlie has now been painted, so the whole canvas is now covered in paint, I find the underpainting the most trickiest part!
I will complete Matt's hands once the two dogs are almost complete. Now it is just refining details, completing the background with fading darker towards the bottom of the painting, and general tweaking.
The second layer of oil paint has now gone down on Zulu & Charlie, and also the background. The dogs are beginning to come to life on the canvas now, and will have one final layer & detailing. Also Matt's hands require some attention, and general tweaking now to complete the painting.
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"Porsche" - Oils on Canvas (12x16in)
A beautiful (rather large) Maine Coon cat with fur for Africa! I have only laid down the initial underpainting so far... many more layers to come yet!
Now working on the painting from the top, adding detailing to Porsche's eyes & ears... and layering the paint to build her tabby stripes
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"Jakob" - Pastel (210x300mm) & Oils on Canvas (8x10in)
Practising my portrait work on some new pastel paper (Colourfix Art Spectrum), and the same reference photo used to paint oils on canvas. To show the comparison between pastels and oil painting. The model is my son Jakob as a model...
Pastel
Final portrait of Jakob
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