Illustration Friday - Chicken

I've just noticed this week's Illustration Friday topic is 'Chicken'...as it happens, I'm quite fond of chickens & cockerels and they tend to keep cropping up in my work. Here are a couple of examples. The cockerel & chicken image at the top is a recent greetings card design, and the watercolour is a piece I did quite a few years ago on a rainy Sunday afternoon.

Recent Framed Portrait Commissions

Here are a couple of portrait commissions I worked on before Christmas, which I've not been able to share on here until now.

The portrait at the top is of a group of four siblings who commissioned the portrait as a Christmas present for their mum. As a family, they all enjoy long walks on the Quantock Hills near their home. I was given a reference photo of them on a winter walk on the hills, hence the crisp winter scene.

The portrait of the police dog handler and her police dogs was commissioned as a special birthday gift, for the fiancee of the dog handler in the picture, by a good friend of the couple. The trio in the portrait had recently completed the three peaks challenge to raise money for charity. As I understand it, it was the first time serving police dogs had ever completed the challenge. This portrait was a great opportunity to celebrate this achievement.

New Designs for 2011

I'd like to share with you some of my new designs for 2011.

After a busy December, I have a sketch book filled with ideas that I've not had a chance to work on until now...and it's great to have time to experiment with techniques and colours.

The news of two Royal weddings for 2011 has got me in a nostalgic and patriotic mood. I'm old enough to just about remember the street parties and celebrations of Charles & Di's wedding. One of the things I do remember (aside from a 'proper knees up!') is getting commemorative china cups from my school - all very British and all very Victorian. This sparked the idea for the new range of prints I'm selling on my website & Folksy - a nice dollop of British nostalgia to celebrate the beloved nectar of this fine nation .....TEA!! (make mine a builder's brew, splash of milk, no sugar please!).

The other print design you see here, you may recognise from a previous blog post. It was my answer to Illustration Friday's topic 'Burning'. As I need a bit of sunshine in my life at this dark , grey time of year, I've decided to turn it into a print - I hope you all approve!

Right, I'm off to work on some more designs.

TTFN x

Happy New Year Bloggers! - here's my first post of 2011!

Happy New Year everyone, I hope 2011 proves to be a happy, healthy, lucky & prosperous year for you all!

I'm delighted to kick the year off by sharing this piece of work with you. Just before Christmas I had a little rush of Christmas gift commissions that I've not been able to share with you until now. The canvas portrait pictured here is a very special piece, commissioned as a 65th birthday present for the proud grandfather of the two girls in the portrait. It was presented at a special celebration between Christmas & New Year (which I hope went very well - if the lady who commissioned the piece is reading this!). The brief was to include lots of reference to Welsh national rugby, as this gentleman is passionate about his nation's sport!

The final image was printed onto a 90cm wide x 60cm high canvas and is based on a lot of ideas my customer had in her mind along with lots of my own ideas. I really do enjoy being challenged to create something for someone that they've visualised in their mind - its great to be able to bring it to life for them.

In short, this was a really satisfying job for me and I am very proud to show it off on here!