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.

Fulmars

With their dark eye brows and vocal cackling these guys are my favourite coastal bird. I call them the penguins of the skies as they fly exactly the way a penguin swims underwater — stiff wing movement, which is great fun to watch!

I’ve used a fair bit of masking fluid to preserve the white of the paper to form the distinct white feathers.

I’ve used brusho pigment ink and watercolour to produce these paintings with white pigment.

Fighting Fish

Unfortunately sometimes I order watercolour paper and it comes through the post a bit bent up, so my answer to this is to splice up the creased up paper into strips where only small critters like these fish can fit — a happy ending!

These fighting fish were created using Indian ink, brusho pigment, white pen and watercolour and available to purchase in my shop.

The Lobster and Cassowary

Here are some working progresses, I’ve used a variety of water soluble markers to highlight where the colours will be strongest on the paper before adding water and fainter colours. These two are painted on 200gsm paper and hopefully I will update soon with the finished results!

Maned Wolf

I decided to try out a lighter weight paper 200gsm to practice on rather than the usual 300gsm, and surprisingly the paper buckling which I expected to be more dramatic — isn’t! I threw a lot of water at this piece but the paper stays relatively flat thankfully.

I love the colour orange so this omnivorous, leggy beast was perfect subject matter for me to paint, he has flecks of white ink in his ears and salt ground into his coat for texture. Maned wolves are found in South America and despite its name is neither a fox nor wolf.

Mallard Duckling and Lynx Experiments

After losing a little bit of confidence painting big cats, I decided to retreat to smaller A5 cold pressed paper to paint this Mallard Duckling. I used to have a real problem with making animal drawings cute enough, but with time and practice I think this piece worked out.

My Lynx's on the other hand, did not work out. Discovering my strengths in painting is still really tough and I have a major problem with planning, I often sit wondering with a near finished piece — now what? And then overwork the piece to death. But the colours are nice, so I've decided to embarrass myself by displaying the results!

The more successful mallard ducking painting is available in my shop.

Charcoal Hare

This large hare was created using lots of smudgy charcoal, I started with a simple scribbly hare drawing in which I defined more with charcoal before outlining in Indian ink. I then added white pigment to highlight the hares face and a few details.

I dragged a rubber across the lower back of the hare to get those distinct white streaks to come through.

Wispy Wolf

This is my wispy wolf painted in mainly Brusho pigment and watercolour on cold pressed paper. This A3 piece took eight attempts to get right — the other pieces I created had huge colour layering mistakes because patience isn't something I possess. Hopefully the mounting cost of watercolour paper will smart enough for me to slow down!

Wide-Eyed German Shepherd

This is another German Shepherd commissioned for charity, your more typical black and tan variety created using more charcoal, Indian ink and white pigment.

I'm so pleased I have been asked to produce work specifically in charcoal as I'd likely never have picked up my willow sticks and give it a real try.

The particular willow charcoal sticks I use are the Coates brand, the charcoal pencils I used to add some scratchier details are the Derwent brand on A3 Seawhite cartridge paper.

Black German Shepherd

I was commissioned to create a piece of artwork to raise funds for German Shepherd rescue efforts, though this was a draft piece (as I’m a bit rusty) — I'm quite pleased with the results, the first time I've touched charcoal for five years!

This soppy black German Shepherd is made with fineliner scribbles, Indian ink, and a variety of charcoal pencils/willow sticks.

Cardinal Finch

This is the initial stages of a cardinal finch painting on cold pressed paper. I want to conserve the drawing so I'll try and keep the colours as dull and distracting as possible, using only the areas highlighted as focal points. The areas of colour are water soluble marker pens with a fine liner and ink base drawing.

Crow and Brusho

I've been looking at a few different bird species to draw and paint, and I've been disappointed that I haven't been hitting it on the head with good drawings lately. So I decided to dive in and paint a crow from a mediocre drawing to test out more brusho as I was feeling impatient.

This painting was created in watercolour, Indian ink and brusho. Brusho gives such vibrant colour with the smallest application, it's replacing my need for ink at the moment just because it's easier to remove from paper and more forgiving than inks, perfect for blundering Lauras. This crow is available in my shop.

White Rat and Rabbit Sketch

A simple rat painting this time, using Indian inks and a touch of watercolour for the eyes, ears, paws and tail.

This little rat is A5 and is saturated with spray starch so I can start experimenting a little more with the brusho pigment, as it has a variety of qualities I’d like to explore!

Accompanied with this rat is my rabbit who was drawn using a HB grade pencil.