Diprose Art Blog

I made myself a New Year's resolution that that I would keep my website blog up to date . . . er well good intentions and all that.  However I am going to try!  

This painting of a bay horse is one that I was really happy with.  To be honest my life was made much easier by the fact that I had very good reference to work from - a large A4 very sharp photo.  It does make a difference because I could see so much detail.  Sometimes I have to work from the photos provided as they are the only ones that exist but if they are not a good likeness to the subject then, with the best will in the world - and I will always give it my best shot - the portriat can only be as good as the photos I am working from.

I was a bit disappointed that I didn't get any feedback from this painting but, sadly,this is not so unusual.  I must admit that this happens more often than you may think.  I can only surmise that the recipient was happy or I am sure I would have heard otherwise!  I find it strange because I really care that I have done the best I can and I put a lot of myself into the work.  It is, after all,  not an off the shelf product but a unique and very personal piece.  

. . .  and now for something completely different!  My Dragon Lady I did some years ago now and she is a bit special to me because she was my first attempt at painting a "people" portrait.  I just did it for a bit of fun really.  It's good to push your boundaries every so often just to see what you can do.  Or can't!.  I have put her for sale on Artfinder so if you are interested you can get to her via the shop link through this website. She is painted in oils on artboard.  I still love working in oils although I don't get the chance to do so very often these days as they are expensive to use and their slow drying time makes for a much more time consuiming work.

I have just done this cartoon, along with a few others on the same theme, for PETS Ltd.  They are doing a charity fund raiser to try and buy a mechanical horse for disabled children to learn to ride on.  A very worthwhile cause and something I am proud to be a small part of.

Well I shall shut up now and try and do updates a bit more often!  Bye x

Hello, I have just had a great Halloween - for the first time in my life I had a go at carving pumkins!  It was great fun but quite difficult as one of them was a very large pumpkin.  I am proud to say I grew it myself and it was 4'8" round it's fat heavy middle.  It weighed over four and a half stone!  Love letting my imagination run wild . . . 

Now for the last stages of Fern's portrait.

Stage 11 - masking her from her background.  This is done with Frisk film which is a low tack (not very sticky . . . and sodding expensive) clear plastic film which you lay over the area you wish to protect.  The outline is then carefully cut round using a scalpel blade and the outside peeled off leaving Fern covered over.  I then use my airbrush to spray over the top to put on the "background".

Stage 12 - this shows my airbrushing over the top of the masked off image.  I try to contrast the darker areas of background against the lighter ares of Fern and vice versa to make her stand out. For this background I have gone for shades of purple and green against the grey.

Stage 13 - now the good bit! I have peeled off the Frisk film to reveal Fern and see how she looks in her new background.  I think she stands out well so I won't make any alterations to the background.  At this stage she looks a bit chopped off and cut out so I now need to make her a part of her background by blending her neck into it and putting fine detail - such as hairs and whiskers in over the top of the background.

Stage 14 - the last part - this is when I add the finest details and stand back and check that I have it right.  This takes more time than you may think - but then I am a bit of a perfectionist and want Fern to look as good - or hopefully in this case particularly - better than her photo.  I enjoy the fiddly bits to be honest.  I know her owners wanted me to make her look her age so I will put a few grey hairs back in.

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Fern is now finished!  She looks a really sweet old girl and I know she is missed so much by her people.

Hi welcome to my blog - I thought I would try and share not just my paintings but also how I get there with you.  I showed my artwork progress on my Facebook page and it proved popular so here goes!

I have just started a new commission - this one is for an elderly collie called Fern.  Unfortunately Fern is no longer with us and sadly her owners did not have many photos of her.  The ones I have to go on are not great quality and very limited in number so I will have my work cut out with this piece.  I have to say good photos really make a difference as I can see so much more detail.  I like to see my subject and take photos myself if I can because I think it gives me a chance to really look at and hopefully understand my subject better.  In the end I think I get a better result.  This is not possible for this commission so I shall just have to try my best and hope I get a good likeness from the photos I have to work with.

Fern's owners also would like her depicted as she was when she past away so with her grey hairs.  I like this because having an elderly dog myself I love him just the way he is now - he is not less because he is older and has a few grey whiskers . . . then again neither am I.  Age and experience should be celebrated too.

I begin, as always, with the drawing.  I am in fact working from a photo which shows Fern when she was younger because it shows her eyes off better.  I intend to make the finished painting look more like her mature self if I can.

The second stage is done by doing a very light wash of Paynes Grey watercolour over the "black" areas and a light wash of titanium white acrylic over the white bits

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The third stage is the browns - I use burnt sienna as the base coat for her eyes and burnt umber for her collar - with a little yellow ochre for her disc.

The fourth stage is where I wash in teh shadows - again with Paynes Grey watercolour but also now with a little ivory black too.  She is starting to look a little more 3D.

The Fifth stage - more shadows being built up and the eye pupils go in.  She is starting to look more like a dog now!  The card I use to paint on is getting quite damp now with all the layers of washes so I think I'd better stop and let it dry!  I always stop and stand back and look at my painting in between the stages as you get a much better idea of how the work is building from a distance.  You can get too bogged down with detail and not see it properly if you don't.  Time for a glass of wine I think . . .  feel like I've earnt it!