Blue Tit

A blue tit sketch from 2014/15

A common sight in my garden - when the sparrows aren’t chasing them away from the fat balls! I’ve tried to paint a blue tit several times during my artistic journey, and I’ve never been able to make them pudgy, vibrant or cute enough but this time I feel like it is a better effort.

Painted using Brusho, fineliner, watercolours and Pen-White by Dr. Ph. Martin’s — which is the best white ink I’ve discovered after getting through copious amounts of other brands, not toothpastey or watery, just great white ink!

European Wildcat and Cheetah

I’ve been practicing painting cats as in the past I’ve felt they’ve been difficult to paint due to their flatter faces. The European wildcat I’ve painted on Yupo paper, and the cheetah I’ve painted on 100lb watercolour paper.

I wanted to paint the cheetah the same way as a fox I created in 2015, by leaving sections unpainted. I want to explore this much more in future paintings, I really like this style!

Siamese Fighting and Clownfish Commission

Whilst busy with commission work and big projects I had time to squeeze in a brightly coloured flowing fighting fish along with a clownfish commission I’ve been working on.

These fish were painted mainly in Brusho and inks to really capture the vibrancy that fish tend to radiate!

I used a ‘snow’ textured watercolour paper for the clownfish and I got a softer cloudier effect when it came to painting.

The texture of this paper also allowed the colours to pool and merge in interesting ways. 

White Tiger and Elephant Shrews

I painted this large white tiger head in watercolours, Indian ink and Brusho, in the process of finding the right tiger face to paint I found out that white tigers are so inbred that they all have crossed eyes — even if their eyes look normal!

I also painted some elephant shrews, the vibrant orange of their fur suckered me in so I have painted them boldly in brusho pigment and Indian ink.

White Tailed Deer

The paper I used to paint this white tailed deer had a little suprise pressed into it — a bug!

I didn’t want to waste the paper so this work is extra unique with its own little insect fossil on the far left side of the paper.

This piece was painted primarily with brusho pigment, I find brusho gives an intense colour which doesn’t fade as much as watercolour.

I used masking fluid to cover areas of the deers face to leave little white spots, and I used white pen for the odd whisker and hair.

I used a lot of orange watercolour (I couldn’t help myself) on an otherwise predominantly brown but gorgeous deer, white tailed deer are found throughout North and South America.