C Jules Art

This is what I have been doing over Christmas, It is a tutorial by Bonny Snowden, I wanted to have a go at this one, its a big piece, 90 by 70cm I am hoping it will get me more used to using Pastelmat, something that you either love or hate

Thank you for all your support through out the last year, its is greatly appreciated, I Hope you all have a lovely Christmas, or holiday, and Lang may yer lum reek

Both framed by Clyde Valley Picture Framing and up on the wall looking superb

Archie is now back from the framers, all ready to go the client, when a commission has been ordered, this is how the final product will be sent out to you, your product will be mounted and sealed in an acid free protective sleeve by a professional framer, all included in the final amount, and of course wrapped appropriately for posting, If any one would like or be considering a commission, just send me a message and I will tell you my fixed rates, if you like any of my non commission work you could also pm and I can tell you about the piece you like, Thank you everyone for your continuing support

The Hare that I painted, is now hanging on the wall at Clyde Valley Picture Framing,where he is looking to find a new owner, who may I add, also did a beautiful job of mounting and framing him

A little peek into my new project, its a large one, 90cm by 70cm, on Pastelmat board, something I haven't worked with before, the pastelmat paper yes, but not the board, I really do like the feeling of it, a baby elephant, I will explain more about the project as I get a little further along with it

Oh boy this little fellow, Archie, he was hard to do, in fact the hardest I have ever done, the photo of him doesn't show detail, and oh how my brain love detail, and he is black too, very difficult to photograph, especially a very lively soul like this one, so the way to do this is just by doing the shapes, you don't know if the curls are going backwards or coming forwards, I have took a photo with him in the wrong mount, I still have to tweak it and put in a little shadow, the client wanted a grey scarf, red would have taken over the drawing of him, we want Archies lovely little face to be the main focus, then its off the the framers to be mounted, and then to the client

'I will cross that bridge when the time is right'
Bought this blank canvas for my bedroom to go on the chimney breast, but it has been laying around for some time, and my hubby put a slice in it by accident, so I just did a kind of abstract with it, and patched the slice up best I could
120 cm by 100cm, its the largest I have ever done, and it was back breaking, must admit its been a while that I have painted due to illness, so gave it my best shot, I quite like it. there is a mistake on it, even though this type you just don't do mistakes, but I am leaving it, if anyone notices it can be a conversation maker, I dont think it shows up from the angle I took the photo as its in metallic paint.
Now I will have to buy another canvas for my bedroom, and this time get it done instead of the canvas lying around, but first back to my pencils have a cockapoo that needs to be finished

So this is Archie, the hardest project I have taken on, his photo is not very detailed, there is some detail but not the fine detail, which does limit what we can do, but he is a lively boy as the cockapoos are, and black dogs are so hard to photograph, especially when his owner get the camera out and Archie decides that sitting still isn't in his books so to say, but this photo represents his character to his owner, its taking some time to do this one, its all about shapes, patterns and values, as an artist we have to watch our brains dont take over and put things that we think should be in there, that are not, anyway just thought I would show you what is taking a while for me to do, and still a long way to go yet, its a lot of putting down pencil and taking off again, all done on drafting film, size A4

I will be picking up my new glasses on Monday, here in Scotland eye tests are free, and I have left it far too long, so went along a week ago, they were very helpful, I need to be able to see my artwork that I am doing up close, but then further away is my computer as we work off photographs for pet portraits and wild life when using pencils, so I have my very first pair of occupational varifocals, I think they are called, so when I look slightly up to my computer it is more clear, they may take some time to get used to, I hope they work, my ordinary reading glasses are fine, and my glasses I keep on when my cockatoo is out playing are fine, he goes for eyes when he decides I am in the wrong for what ever, it was just when I was doing my art I was getting very frustrated, so fingers crossed

Mother natures art at its best, some pictures I captured last night, around midnight, best I have ever seen yet since moving to South Lanarkshire, its great having dark skies, it was a Major red alert, and even with my cheap phone camera I managed to capture these, hanging out my bedroom window, it took my breath away

Finished the Leveret, Love it, and I didn't have some of the right pencils, got a tad carried away with my orange, its and derwent lightfast, quite a sticky pencil, so the head and neck was tutorial by Bonny Snowdon and we had to do the rest as a case study, quite pleased with it, it was definitely a challenge, the photo credit goes to Sue Cross

While I am waiting for a photograph off my next client I thought I would l try Bonny Snowdon's tutorial of a Leveret, quite enjoying it, I was going to do the baby elephant then I realised I didnt have the right paper and its a large one, so decided to try this instead while I ordered the paper, I am liking it that much I was thinking a little series of these would be nice, and just to explain how slow a medium this is up to now I have spent 4 1/2 hours on it, I must give credit to the photographer Sue Cross

Here she is, all finished, Little ole sweet Tilly the dachshund, oh what a joy to do, but that hat has caused me many problems, had trouble making it looked like it was folded forward not backwards, all to do with shading, anyway, that is it, no more tweaking it, on with the next one, well after mark has had his holiday off work, having a trip out on Sunday to the famers market at Moffatt, something different and interesting
A4 on drafting film using Faber Castell and Caren D'ache luminance pencils

Its still a working progress for this old dear Tilly, needs a few things tweaking and going darker yet in places, and that hat, I have that to do, I am enjoying doing it, quite a challenge, this should be finished before my hubby is off on holiday again, he has more holidays than hot dinners, didn't know you got that many, I got a week, ok I was self employed, but if I don't get it finished by Tuesday, I will have to finish it the week after, just cant get it done when he is off

Its very rare for me not to finish a drawing, this was a tutorial by Bonnie Snowden, I have no idea why I stopped, I started it just after the German shepherd I did, and then got way laid with other pieces and commissions, but my heart wasn't in this one for some reason, and it was going fine, so maybe I will get back to it yet, and I had forgot about it too, I had put it in a draw, so thought I would show you all how far I got with it

This is whats on my drawing table at the moment, this beautiful shy old lady, have done about 9 hours on it at the moment, still a long way to go, and that hat its mind boggling, but I am pleased with how its coming along, again its on drafting film size A4 with mainly poly's and pablo pencils, I really need to practice taking photos straight with my phone

I have been told to put a photo of me on my page, I hate having my photo taken, so I have put this one of me and my girl Tilda, she is better looking than me so most people will look at her instead of me, she is now 10 years old, and gives me what for in owl language and what a drama queen she is, I do have 3 parrots too, african grey, an eclectus and a cockatoo all male, maybe you would love to share a picture or tell us about your pets, I would love to hear about them or see them, just pop them in the comments below

I was given the honour of drawing this memorial of the beautiful Georgia, this is definitely one of the hardest portraits I have done, but I enjoyed it so much, they are extremely stunning parrots, with such intense colour, so striking, she is very much missed, I used Faber Castell polychromos, and Caran D'ache luminance pencils on drafting film, size is A4, its taken a while but out of respect of her owners I waited till they saw the finished portrait, and now post with their permission

I was in the middle of doing a project, in fact I was 3/4 way through it, it was my birthday last week and we had family up to stay with us for a week, I cant really work when people are around, my hubby took a weeks holiday from work too, we had a lovely time for the week, with this gorgeous weather and even went to Moffatt for a day, lovely place to visit all gone home now and hubby back to work, so today gave all my birdies a shower, back to normal tomorrow, and I can get back to the drawing board and get on with my art

Finished, one picture I took, a very messy work station, mark took the other one where my desk looks tidy, all my pencils are completely mixed up, used some from each, Faber castell polychromos, Caren d'ache pablos and luminance, plus Derwent lightfast, looks like I need a full tidy up before I go onto the next drawing, but what a cute blonde cockapoo puppy he is, their fur is so soft, I think I will give it a few days and then take a last look with fresh eyes to see if there are any tweaks to be made, the origanal photo I worked from is my own

Jjust a peek of what on the drawing board at the moment, you think you have enough colour, and step back and you are way off, it gonna take a while this one, apparently cockapoos are meant to be really difficult and I will agree with that, I have started it on drafting film, but keep wondering if I should of done it on pastelmat, but I started so I will finish eventually, so it looks like I have just got the high lights in at the moment, I also have a Jack Russel I have started to somewhere, he has his full face done I am on the neck on that one, I am also trying to finish off my boys outside play aviary, got loads of metal to paint black, it looks more aesthetic black than silver, and doesnt hurt your eyes as much with the gleam, busy busy busy, and the sun is shining which is a bonus

I also got this one framed Clyde Valley Picture Framing, its an old painting I did with acrylics on a board, I liked it so much did it again on canvas, so decided to have the board framed to replace the canvas I had up, The frame is gorgeous, just love it, the photo just doesn't do it justice, I keep saying I need to get back to doing some acrylic paintings, I just have so much I want to do I don't get round to it, but I am never going to say never, because its something I did love, just as much as the pencils, but I actually got to like working on the boards more than a canvas

All 6 little birds back from the framers, Clyde Valley Picture Framing, she did an excellent job, great choice of frames and mounts, they look lovely up, but I must admit I nearly had a heart attack watching Mark put them up on one side of the window at the top of the stairs, he stood on a pile of books, but they look brilliant, really pleased with them, once again I find it strange to think I did these, now to do more for all the way down the stairs

Yes, I finished it, and this is my own work, I decided not to just put a shadow in, but to put in the blanket Rosie (Dachshund mix) was lay on too, another thing I have never attempted, I am sure getting brave, now and again I can feel myself getting carried away and I have to put my pencils down, to stop me from putting to much pressure on my pencil, but I am very pleased with it

I would just like to say thank you for all your continuing support for my artwork, I really appreciate it

Finally finished the German Shepherd, this was a tutorial by Bonny Snowden one of the UK's leading pencil artist, this was definitely worth doing, I have learnt so many different new techniques, but oh so tough, I have never tempted to do a dog with its inside of the mouth showing, and not as scary as it looked, and what a fabulous teacher she is, 6 weeks but to be fair to myself I did finish off my 6 garden birds in between, very pleased with it

Finally I have finished my six little garden birds, gold finch, blue tit, wren, robin, Kingfisher, and last but not least a Nut hatch, I will be sending them to the framers, very soon, and then post them here, now I can carry on with my other project that I started but went on the back burner to finish the birds

I haven't really got any 'ART' done since we moved, but I have been busy painting my bannister a dark grey, and I can say I am very proud of my neat line, shhhhhhh, did it with a pencil and ruler, the plaster and wood wasn't really straight, and my poor 15 year old Buddha was looking so washed out, I had a lightbulb moment, and thought , I bet my water colour paints will bring it back to life, and voila, looking like new, plus one of my older paintings looks good on the wall, but now I have been inspired for another picture in pencils on the side of my stairs, well its one way of trying to get out of any more painting walls with emulsion

I have finished them, the 3 sleeping owls, a lot of this kind of work is done from photographs, so I was trying to get the highlights and shadows the same, as that's what a customer would ask for, but a lot of the time getting it exact to photograph doesn't always work, and can look so different when working in pencils, so the first owl I did and I didn't like the effect I got, it just didnt work as I wanted it to on paper, tried to change it but this Fabriano paper only allows about 3-4 layers of pencil and it wouldn't change as I had done my limit, not to worry I carried on and I liked the next 2 owls better, I was thinking of putting a background in, but I will be doing this one again, as you learn so much and realise the best way of doing something, but over all very pleased with it and its another large piece 19 by 26 inches original photo from Pixaby you have to click on the photo to see the whole artwork