Michelle Wrighton Fine Art and Photography

This is a small acrylic painting I am working on of Gilley, a rescue Greyhound from the UK. Greyhounds have the most beautiful, liquid, expressive eyes that are an absolute joy to paint. As a breed, Greyhounds have such a regal bearing that the deep purple background seemed appropriate for Gilley’s Pet Portrait.

With these smaller paintings, I am really trying to loosen up and capture the essence of the animal without being totally pre-occupied with capturing every last detail like I normally do in my pencil portraits.

I usually do my initial sketch on paper then transfer it to the canvas, but I thought I would just sketch straight onto the canvas this time.

But graphite on canvas dosn’t erase very well, so next time I will transfer my sketch the usual way.

Gilley’s face still need some more work and I need to finish painting the sides of the canvas as I have the painting continueing around the edges.

(8″x10″, acrylic on gallery wrapped canvas)

Michelle

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

I have done a bit more modelling of Poppy’s face and have started on her eyes. It takes many thin glazes (layers) of paint of various shades of browns and golds to achieve the luminous liquid look of animal eyes, but having made a start on her eyes, Poppy is starting to come to life.

In this next progress shot, I have done a bit more work on the field and have started to add in the red poppy flowers. I’ve also continued with the modelling of her face and started the basic underpainting on her body. Obviously the underpainting is just blocking in shapes (shadows and lights) to create the form of her body before the detail starts to go on in the top layers. I’ve also added some purple to the paynes grey to tie the background in with the dog’s fur, to give depth to the darkest shadows and to start creating some of the red highlights that are apparent in the reference photo of the black labrador retriever that I am using. Thats a handy co-incidence that will work well to tie in the colours in the dog with the background:)

This painting is in a very, very ugly stage that seems to be lasting forever. As much as it looks like it now, this will not be an abstract painting of a dog when it is finished. LOL – at least I hope not!

I am working this painting in the same way that many oil painters use – multiple thin glazes of colour, so it is pretty time consuming. This has taken about 16 hours so far and I would say has at least that many more to go.

Michelle

I am thoroughly enjoying working with this velour paper with my pastels and I am really pleased with how this portrait of Marcus, a Long Haired Dachshund has turned out. I can see that my pastels and this velour support and quickly going to become my favourite medium for working in.

I couldn’t help myself, after finishing this one I have finally started a portrait of my own dog Tia, she is a black Shar-Pei and it is proving to be a very interesting challenge creating black wrinkles that look realistic! I will add a blog entry with her portrait when it is finished.

Where has this year gone? I can’t believe that it is nearly Christmas already and I am definitely not going to look at the last date that I updated this blog, so instead I will just share my latest piece, a pure pastel pet portrait painting on velour paper of a gorgeous Cavalier King Charles Spaniel.

This is the first time that I have used the German made Hahnemuhle velour pastel paper and I will definitely be using it again, it creates an incredible softness to the artwork that is particularly suited to animal portraiture.

This Cavalier King Charles Spaniel pet portrait features on dog breed merchandise such as stationery, prints, greeting cards, tote bags and more.

Michelle

I’ve just found out about Squidoo, and have officially become a “Squidoo lensmaster”. LOL while that sounds really technical (or maybe just plain bizarre), it really is a very simple way of sharing your recommended links on a particular topic in a portal and possibly earning a few $ through the Squidoo system (you get paid based on Google Adwords, Amazon, cafe press etc).

I strongly believe in coincidences and as I have just recently begun a personal quest researching art history, famous artists, art movements and styles (all the things you propably would learn in art school), I thought it would be a good idea to put all the great information that I find together in a new lens All About Art for my own reference and maybe it will also help out other people who are interested in the same subject. I’ve also added a section for art lessons and demonstrations because, as a self-taught artist, I firmly believe it is possible for anyone with the determination and persistance to develop their artistic talent which we all have if we nurture it!

If you would like to join squidoo and set up your own lens, please consider using this link as your referral and when you earn your first $15, we’ll both get $5 free!

Refferal Link

I finally finished the commemorative portrait of Cleo the Bull Terrier cross that I mentioned in a previous post. I am really pleased with the way it turned out – especially as it was the first time I had attempted to draw a white dog in graphite. It was for a 60th birthday present and Cleo’s owner loved it thank goodness!

Unfortunately I did not have time to scan it and the digi photos I took really didn’t turn out very well, so much of the detail and fine shading was lost. This is the best photo of the lot however the shadows on the original are no where near as dark as they appear in this photo, and there is a lot more detail on her brown ear that is obscured by glare in the photo. Oh, the joys of photographing graphite artwork!

“Cleo”

Bull Terrier Cross

Graphite, 11″ x 14″, 2006

I posted a couple of cat ACEO’s (original Art Cards) on Ebay yesterday. I decided to try the Aussie ebay site for a change, I usually list ACEO’s on the US ebay site as ACEO’s are much more well known there (A search on Ebay.com.au for the term ACEO reveals all of 92 items today compared to several thousand on the US site). ACEO’s are not very well known over here in Australia though, so it is a bit of a gamble at best. More and more Aussie artists are now creating them though, so hopefully they will become well collected in the future.

I have also removed my Ebay Art Store as it is not proving to be worth the cost or effort, largely due to all the messing around Ebay has been doing recently. I might consider re-opening it in the future, but until I can have a really good number of items in the store it seems pointless to keep paying Ebay for low views!

Marmelade and White Kitten
Click to view on Ebay

Marmelade and White Kitten

White Persian ACEO

White Persian (Closeup view)

This is probably my favorite piece that I did in 2005. The look in this dog’s eyes just says it all, he is laying there patiently waiting for his owner to come back.

“Waiting” Coloured Pencil, 11″ x 14″, 2005

This piece was completed purely in colour pencils on cream Stonehenge paper and took well over 55 hours of work to complete. It was worth it though, because it was awarded First Place in the Painting & Drawings: Animals class at the Art Show I entered – pretty amazing seeing as colour pencil is such a new Fine Art medium and because the other entries included oils, acrylics and pastels!

This Bullmastiff pet portrait features on dog breed merchandise such as stationery, prints, greeting cards, tote bags and more.

We lost our little girl Jack Russell Terrier over two years ago to a brain tumor. She was nearly 11 years old and such a gutsy, happy little dog – a true Jack Russell Terrier in every way. Even though I am a pet portrait artist, it took a long time for me to be able to do her portrait.

Created with soft pastels on black Art Spectrum sanded paper, this is one of those pieces that just seemed to paint itself and I am really pleased with the result. I can now really understand why many of my clients who have commissioned commemorative portraits of pets they have lost as it feels almost like having them back again, that probably sounds really strange, maybe its being able to see that familiar loving face every day. Of course a painting can never replace a dearly missed pet, but it certainly does help to heal the pain a little.

Jack Russell Terrier in Pastel

‘Harley’ in pastel: 9″x12″

At the moment I am working on a commemorative portrait of Cleo, a Bull Terrier cross. I had the choice to do it in graphite or colour and decided on graphite, I’m not quite sure why as apart from one ear she is a white dog, and rendering white fur on white paper with graphite is a bit of a challenge! I will post a picutre of Cleo’s portrait when it is finished.