Michelle Wrighton Fine Art and Photography

Another graphite sketch, this is Lucky Baa, our first Dorper lamb.  Baa was also the first ‘pet’ lamb that we have had to bring inside and bottle feed for the first few days as the poor little tyke broke his right front leg.  Apparently its not uncommon for the mother to step on the lamb and break its leg, which is what we suspect happened with Baa.  We made up an assortment of leg splints from carpet and pvc piping cut in half  and wrapped the leg with vet wrap and kept changing the splint as he grew.  Having a splinted leg certainly dosn’t stop him from doing anything the other lambs are doing!

Dorper Lamb graphite drawing

Thanks for visiting my blog  and sharing my art and photography with your family and friends!

x Michelle

Michelle Wrighton: Animal, Wildlife & Landscape Fine Art & Photography

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Living in a rural area provides me with a never ending supply of subject matter to photograph and paint.  Over the last few months, I’ve been able to obtain some beautiful reference photos of the calves and lambs on nearby farms, as well as many of our own Dorper sheep and our first lot of six lambs.  This one was painted before calving season started, but the expression on this little guys face depicts the curiosity of cows perfectly.

I think cows may be as curious as cats, maybe even more so.  Usually when I walk up to them with my camera they all run off a short distance then turn and look back at me.  Then there will always be one cow that has to come straight back to find out who I am and what I am doing and this one gives courage to the rest of them:)

This is another digital painting created using Painter XI and a Wacom Intuos 4 drawing tablet.

South west calf painting © Michelle Wrighton

The step by step image below shows how I develop the painting from the initial sketch, the colours I use in the underpainting and how the painting is built up in semi transparent glazes to create depth and texture.  I paint swatches of the colours I am using onto the background so that it is easy for me to pick up the correct base colour which I then lighten/darken as required.  I use a variety of different brushes and ‘digital’ mediums when I paint digitally, this was done a while ago I can’t remember which specific brushes I used, but I usually swap and change between oils, acrylics and pastels depending on what I am trying to achieve.  This is *not* something that you can do with traditional art mediums, although you can certainly mix mediums, there are specific processes required to ensure the stability of the painting such as oils over acrylic rather than the other way round.

Although I find it easy to paint very realistic details, creating a more ‘painterly’ image that I am happy with is more of a challenge.  I have exactly the same problem with painting in traditional paints and drawing with graphite or colour pencils, but digital painting has finally given me the opportunity to experiment with creating images that are less photo-realistic than most of my previous artwork.  Its a very refreshing change, and probably part of the reason that I enjoy digital painting so much.

step by step animal painting

Gifts for cow lovers, art prints, canvas prints and other merchandise featuring my original art, ‘South West Calf’ are now available for purchase from the Farm Animal Section on my Zazzle giftshop.

William - Pet Cat Portrait painting by Michelle Wrighton

Cards, laminated, matted and framed prints of “William” can be purchased from my Redbubble shop:

'Zippo' Pet Portrait Painting of a Betta (Siamese Fighter) by Michelle Wrighton

Zippo was my daughter’s much loved first Betta fish…who is sadly no longer with us, so this is a memorial pet portrait for my daughter. And below is very poor reference photo that I used to paint Zippo from (I can say that because its an old photo that I took with a tiny point and shoot camera!)

Poor reference photo!

“Flame of The Forest”

Golden Lion Tamarin

8″x10″ Oil Painting on mdf

$180.00AU

"Flame of the Forest" Golden Lion Tamarin painting in oils by Michelle Wrighton

There is nothing quite like the unmistakable face of a British Bulldog!

Bulldogs are a dog breed developed originally from Mastiffs that were also used in the cruel sports of bull and badger “baiting” which were popular in England for hundreds of years until they were finally made illegal in 1850. Today’s Bulldogs are more heavily built and far less athletic than their ancestors, and they are generally placid, gentle and very affectionate companions who love children.

Bulldogs like Cromwell make devoted family pets, and although they can’t be exercised excessively, they can be quite lively and rambunctious and many of them have a good sense of humor!

If you are a Bulldog lover, this is your opportunity to own an original oil painting featuring this gorgeous breed!

“Cromwell” British Bulldog

5″ x 7″ Oil painting on

canvas board

$150.00AU incl shipping

(approx $105.00 US – view Currency Converter)

10% of your investment in this artwork will be donated to K9 Rescue

Cromwell British Bulldog Oil Painting

Credit card Purchases can be made securely through Paypal even if you do not have a Paypal account.

Don’t forget to visit the “Helping Paws” exhibition and vote for your favorite dog painting – the People’s Choice winner will have a cash donation sent to the rescue or shelter that the artist is supporting, so its for a good cause!

Thanks for reading and looking at my new dog painting! I’d love to know what you think of ‘Cromwell’ (he’s one of my favourite daily paintings so far:)

Michelle

http://michellewrighton.com

This is the final update for the Weimaraner portait.

Weimaraner - The grey Ghost

To purchase a variety of wall art, greeting cards and t-shirts featuring my art and photography, Please visit my RedBubble Gallery. Purchases can be made in different currencies (USD, Euro, GBP, AUD) and shipped shipped worldwide.

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This is the first pet portrait I have done of a Weimaraner. I am creating this one with a slightly looser, more “painterly” style rather than my normal “include every hair” level of detail.

This is on drafting film (I doubt that I will ever go back to any other support! using colour pencils, mostly Derwents, Prismacolors and the odd FC Polychromos.

As usual, I sketch in the basic landmarks, work the eyes to about 90-95% completion (if I don’t get them right, the rest of the portrait will not come together) and the establish the highlights.

In the next photo, I have started to work in the shadow areas on the chest and body using a French Grey (sorry I can’t remember the % of FG, I tend to work intuitively with the colours, and rarely keep a track of the colours I am using).

I prefer to have a full range of values in my artwork, this can sometimes be a challenge with images like this one where there is fairly strong backlighting. We’ll see if I can pull it off;)

In the next image I have added some indigo to deepen the shadow areas.

Now I have started working in the midtones on the chest and body, working on the shapes for the different values rather than focusing on individual hairs.

I have continued building the chest and body with a variety of pinks, mauves, purples and french greys. The lips have been done with browns, pinks, light purple and black grape for the shadow area. I’ve also started the background using a variety of soft subtle greens. While a stronger background would definitely make the dog ‘pop’, I really want to portray the soft, loving side of the Weimaraner, so I have deliberately chosen more subtle colours.

A few more layers have been added to the background and I have started the first layers on the face and nose, which is looking a little wonky in this image, probably because I took the photo at an angle to avoid reflection of the drafting film.

Thats the last update I have at the moment for this pet portrait. I’m having fun experimenting with a slightly different style, and would love to know what you think, so please leave a comment!

Until I return with another update, here is some information on the Weimaraner breed, just in case your interested!

Weimaraner Breed Profile

Country of Origin: Germany

Colour: Silver-grey

Coat type: There are two coat types, the Short haired which is smooth and sleek and the long haired variety which have a soft medium length top coat, with long feathering on the ears, tail and breeching and moderate feathering on the legs, belly and chest.

Temperament: Alert, affectionate, willing, obedient (when trained) dedicated and devoted to their family, love being the centre of attention.

Group: Gun Dog

Size: Dogs 59-70 cm and bitches 57-65 cm.

Weight: dogs – 30 to 40 kg, bitches – 25 to 35 kg

Original Purpose: Originally bred as a versatile hunting dog, and they are still used for this purpose today.

The Weimaraner is good natured and totally devoted to his owners, although they can be aloof with strangers. Affectionately known as the ‘grey ghost’, the Weimaraner is one of the worlds most versatile hunting dog that is able to point, retrieve, track and hold at bay. They are highly intelligent and excel in Obedience and Agility trials, and make wonderful companions if they are allowed to be a part of the family and are given an outlet for their intelligence.

Weimaraners need contact and companionship with their owners and are an energetic breed that needs lots of physical and mental stimulation to avoid boredome problems developing. The coat requires minimal regular grooming to remove dead hair (more frequent during coat changes) as well as regular ear cleaning, nail clipping and dental care.

Weimaraners are beautiful dogs – but that dosn’t make them suitable for everyone, so if you are considering adding one of these gorgeous dogs to your family, make sure you thoroughly research the breed and spend time getting to know them to make sure they are the right breed for you and your lifestyle.

This colour pencil and acrylic portrait of Blink, a beautiful cat owned by a fellow artist, was also created on drafting film. I love this up-close-and-personal, larger than life composition, where the main focus is on the eyes – in this case the eyes are huge, 2″x 1.5″ in size, while the whole artwork is about 10″x9″ in size.

I’m updating this to add some photos of this one in progress as quite a few people have trouble believing its not a photograph, even though I have cropped the painting to include some of the blank paper at the bottom:)  I keep a small camera next to my easel and document the progress of nearly all the pieces that I create.

Cat portrait Work In Progress 1

Cat portrait Work In Progress 2

Cat portrait Work In Progress 3

Cat portrait Work In Progress 4

Cat portrait Work In Progress 5

And the final Image, I added some of the white whiskers in white acrylic, as the drafting film was loaded with cp pigment.  Please let me know what you think of “Blink”!

Cards and prints featuring this artwork can be purchased at

I’ve managed to grab a few hours here and there to get some more work done on Poppy.

Basically just adding more thin layers and creating depth in the fur using paynes grey, ultramarine, burnt umber and some reddish brown mixes.

Also adding more thin glazes to the grass to blend the background, adding individual blades of grass and flowers stalks and a few flower buds using different greens mixed with some of the darker paint used in the dogs fur.

I’ve also started to add to the flowers to create the shadows and highlights that will give them form.  The flowers are proving to be the biggest challenge, partly because I am working from several different reference photos because I don’t know what poppies look like in detail and because none of the photos have the flowers as I want them, I am basically making it up as I go:)

In the image above, I’ve started to add the darkest paint to turn Poppy into a black dog.  The trick here is to avoid making her look like a big black blob!  The highlights in her eyes really make her come alive on the canvas.

In this last photo, Poppy is finally looking like a Black Labrador, even though she still needs a fair bit more work.  And I think she needs some liposuction on those lips, so I will have to post another update, and hopefully the final image, when she has had that necessary face lift, and had her whiskers added!

Michelle