Show season is upon us!

You may have noticed that, compared to my recent flurry of drawing activity, things have slowed down considerably. The reason for this is that show season is finally upon us. Unlike Art and Craft fairs, I don't tend to draw at the agricultural shows and the days in between are filled with printing, mounting, framing and generally preparing for the shows.

I'm not attending as many shows this year as last, so I should have much more time for drawing (I don't think I managed a new piece for over 6 months last year).

You can see our show set up here. This was Saturday's Honley Show. Being the first of the year, we inevitably forgot a few things, including our banners - hence why there is nothing in these photos to tell the public who we are! This was also the first test of our new marquee, which faired very well. We had a very sturdy marquee last year, but it took around 45 mins to erect. This marquee is almost as sturdy, but goes up in a couple of minutes.

Rottweiler

Here is this weekend's work. It was a 3 day fair this weekend due to the bank holiday, so I managed to get this drawing started and completed whilst at the fair.

I do already have a Rottweiler puppy in my collection, but, as it was one of the first dogs I ever drew, I felt it was in need of replacement. This was such an attractive Rottweiler (called Rocky) that I couldn't resist drawing him.

Size is as usual with my dog drawings at 21x30cm

Jack Russell

Well, this one went so quickly that I didn't get chance to post any stages other than the finished thing. This is this weekend's work, finished off this afternoon.

I already have a Jack Russell in my collection, which was drawn for my first book, but it wasn't a very 'generic' looking Jack Russell, so I have been wanting to draw another one for quite some time now.

Well, here we are! Finished piece approx 20x30cm

Jacobs Complete

After almost a 2-week break from this drawing (I had a lot of printing and mount-cutting to get done), I have finally got around to finishing it.

Final piece approx 28x19cm and around 45 hours

Dobermann complete

A few more hours today and the Dobermann (I know it is spelt 'Doberman' in some countries, but not in the UK) is complete!

Pheasant Study

I had meant to get back to the dogs after the last Hare drawing, but got distracted by some recent Pheasant reference photos. We currently have a family (I assume they are a family) of Pheasants that regularly visit our garden, which makes collecting reference material quite convenient.

This is a relatively quick piece; measuring approx 28x20, it took around 15 hours to complete.

The Hare is complete!

As mentioned in my last post, a long Easter weekend working on this and it is complete.

Finished piece approx 26x36cm

Mules completed

"Mules"

Approx 19x29cm

Castle Bolton Finished

'Castle Bolton'

Approx 18x28cm

Castle Bolton

Here is the top half of my next piece. This is Castle Bolton near Aysgarth (and also near my last drawing at West Burton).

I wanted to draw the castle from a different angle, so thought I would place it in the background of yet another stile drawing. This scene does actually exist, but if you were to stand at this stile, the castle would be much smaller in the distance...the joys of artistic licence!

Cauldron Force - West Burton Complete

"Cauldron Force"

Size 30x20cm

No it's not a dog!!

Here is the top third section of a new drawing. I thought i should take a short break from the dogs and try something a little different.

This is the beginnings of West Burton Falls in the Yorkshire Dales. I live just down the road from here, so have visited it often, but on this day it was really roaring (it was after quite a rain storm) and I thought it would make for an interesting drawing.

Greyhound complete!

Another 6 hours and the Greyhound is complete.

30x21cm

A little bit more Greyhound

Here is today's work. Having put in about 7 hours, I actually thought I may get a little further than this today, but I guess you can't rush a Greyhound!

The head is pretty much complete, with the exception of the mouth which needs more work.

A few more hours tomorrow should see this one finished.

Can't stop drawing dogs!!

I had decided that I would take a break from drawing things of the Canine variety, so here is something different... OK, so it isn't different at all, it's another dog, but I just couldn't resist!

Here we have the beginnings of a Greyhound. We are about 7 hours into this with quite a way to go yet.

Beagle completed

"Beagle"

Image size approx 20x30cm

Beagle

For a first post, this is a little further along than usual. This is the weekend's work whilst at the first show of the year (it's good to dust off the prints and get out there again), so today was my first chance to get a scan of the drawing so far.

The weekend was busier and more successful than was expected for this time of year and with all the doom and gloom that is going around. Who knows, it may all work out well for the starving artists and crafts people among us; people not being able to afford to go overseas so holidaying in the UK, whilst foreigners also holiday over here due to the weak pound agains pretty much every other currency.

If any of the afore mentioned people are reading this, I can highly recommend Hawes in the Yorkshire Dales (especially on weekends when I am at the Craft Fair!!)

Yorkshire Terrier Finished

Yorkshire Terrier is finished

Size: 30x20cm

Yorkie or Wookie?

My Bearded Collie was looking like a Yeti at one stage and this Yorkshire Terrier currently looks like a Wookie (or Ewok!). I'm sure the ears will rectify that (if not, i'll just retitle it!)

This is probably only another 3-4 hours today, but i'm still making quick progress of this one.

Yorkshire Terrier

Here's a very small start to a very small dog! I have been meaning to draw a Yorkshire Terrier for quite some time now. Living in North Yorkshire, whenever i'm asked if I have a Yorkie in my collection, there is a look of shock when I reply with a 'No'. So here we are...well here we will have!

Weimaraner finished!

Another 5 hours or so of work today and the Weimaraner is complete.

Size approx 20x30cm.

Total time approx 23 hours.

Bearded Collie Complete

This Beadie is done! Image size approx 22x30cm.

Blue Roan Cocker Spaniel Finished

As predicted, only a couple more hours were needed to complete this Blue Roan Cocker Spaniel.

Size 30x20cm. Approx 24 hours in total.

This will now be added to my Dog Print Collection.

Cairn Terrier

I came across this Cairn Terrier puppy at a recent fair. It was visiting another trader and I just had to draw it. As I had forgotten my camera, they managed to get a great reference photo for me to use and here is the resulting drawing.

This will be added to my (currently rapidly expanding) dog collection.

'Meeting Post'

'Meeting Post' is finished.

Another addition to the Stile Collection, here we have a gate stile within a dry stone wall. Who knows what the rabbits are meeting up to discuss - maybe how to get safely across the road!

The location is just west of Bainbridge in the Yorkshire Dales. Size 11"x8". Time approx 40 hours.

Stiles, rabbits, sheep...same old thing!!

Yet another stile drawing, similar to the Squeeze Stile drawn last year, but in a different setting (and from the gate side).



The scene in the background (that you can't see yet) caught my eye on the way to a fair in Hawes. I pulled over and noticed a stile on the opposite side of the road. Of course, I had to take the opportunity to add another stile drawing to the collection - although, I am running out of different styles of stiles to draw!!

As always, I have to get some animals in there somewhere, so this one is going to get the addition of a couple of rabbits and some grazing sheep.


Probably about 30 hours into this with maybe 10 to go.

Border Terrier

As promised, here is the next addition to the Open Edition Dog Collection, a Border Terrier. The wiry hair of a Border Terrier isn't quite as straight forward or as quick of that of a Border Collie, but it was a great subject to draw.

Back to the Stiles now...

Border Collie Head Study

A new addition to the ever-expanding dog collection, sees a Border Collie head study. As regular readers may be aware, I attend a lot of art and craft fairs and am always being asked for prints of dog breeds that I don't have. The Border Collie has been top of that list for quite a while, so I thought it was time I added one.

Watch this space for the next few on the list (coincidentally, all Terriers), a Staffordshire Bull Terrier, Yorkshire Terrier and Border Terrier.

Gate Stile to Morpeth Scar

Finally finished .

Completed size 36x25cm

Finally an update! This is still only showing about half the drawing area, so there is still a long way to go yet. There will be the appearance of some wildlife in there shortly though...

Milby Lock

A slight deviation from the norm for me here. This is Milby Lock on the River Ure at Boroughrbridge. I walk past this lock most days with my dog, Brinkley (as you can see) and have thought for a while how interesting it would be to tackle in graphite.

The finished piece is 38x24cm and took about 60 hours to complete.

A few book drawings

I seem to write this a lot, but I haven't posted anything for a while now. I have been finishing off work on a second book for Walter Foster Publishing in the US. Here are a few of the drawings in the book. First up we have a Husky. I went for a bit of a different look with this one, throwing in a slightly blurred background to set off the white coat of the Husky.

Second, we have a couple of kittens hiding away in a paper bag (I know, going for the 'Ahhhh' factor there!)

And finally, we have a head study of a Dalmatian.

All three of these, plus many more will appear in the book 'The Art of Drawing Animals'. This is a collaboration between myself and 3 other artists and should be released later in the year.

Completed with STILE!!

We are finally done with this one. The finished piece is 36x27cm on Bristol Board, and took about 60 hours to complete.

Squeeze Stile Finished

This squeeze stile is finally finished. It has been a lot of stone to draw but strangely enjoyable! This is the second in a series of stile drawings, so there are many more to get through.

The finished piece measures 38x26cm.

The weather hits again!

Wednesday was one of the only outdoor shows that I had left this year after the relentless rain has seen to it that all of the others have been cancelled.

The Borrowby show made it without a cancellation, but the weather seemed to have put people off anyway. It was a very quiet day, but I thought I would show you my set up.

This is the first time I have used this marquee since my last one was blown to bits by the wind (I would recommend avoiding ez-pop up marquees at all costs). This is a much sturdier marquee and won't be going anywhere in the wind.

We also took Brinkey, the dog, to this one for the first time. He has just turned one, so has been a little too crazy to take in the past. Even though it was a quiet day for us, he seemed to enjoy all of the attention - I probably should have been selling him rather than prints!! (Don't worry, I wouldn't really).

I only have one more outdoor show before the rest of the year's are indoors, so we will see if that one goes ahead.

Old Stile by the Ure

I finally got this one finished after a bit of a delay due to a bad neck.

I had planned on getting it finished, printed and mounted in time for tomorrow's Aldborough and Boroughbridge Show, but, that, along with 4 other shows that I had over the next couple of weeks has been cancelled due to the weather. At least I can take the rest of the afternoon off and don't have to frantically mount prints up!

Anyway, this one measures just under 30x40cm and took approximately 50 hours to complete.

"Duplex" finished

This one is finally finished. It has taken a day longer than I planned because I had to darken the entire right side further to contrast more with the sun drenched left side.

The finished piece measures 40x30cm.

The birds are home...

I didn't get any work done on this over the weekend (what? I can take a break!), so here is todays work so far. The birds are in, but may require a little tweaking.

The right hand side of the barn shouldn't take too much longer, so I hope to have this complete either today or tomorrow.

2 Birds and a Barn

Having taken a short break to get some celebrity drawings complete, i'm back to the farm themed work. This piece sees an old delapidated barn home to a couple of sparrows.

So far I have only blocked in the darkest areas. The larger area of the barn showing on the right will be completely in shadow, so this one is going to use up quite a bit of graphite!

Bond and Prison Break

I haven't posted anything for about a week, so I thought I would show you what I was up to. I have been getting another couple of celebrities drawn for Kadinsky Art, a Celebrity Art publisher.

Here we have Daniel Craig as James Bond and below Wentworth Miller as Michael Scofield from Prison Break.

Back to the animals now...

Finally finished

This one has taken slightly longer than I had planned, but is finally finished. I haven't come up with a name for this as yet, but i'm sure it will come to me soon.

This took approximately 50 hours in total to complete and measures approx 40x20cm.

Barn almost finished

So we are almost over to the right hand side and, with that, the completion of the barn.

I don't know why I haven't already but the chicken in the window really need completing, so i'll get to that tomorrow...

Wood, wood, and more wood

Moving quite slowly with this one, and working from the middle outward for some reason! I'm going to get all of the background wood in place before starting on the foreground animals, that way I can ensure I set their tone at the right level to stand out from all of this mid-tone.

Back to the farm work

After a bit of a break to expand the Puppy Collection (which I will probably return to after this piece), I am back to the farm work. This time it is to revisit the sheep and chickens in a barn setting.

I have been playing around with this barn setting for quite some time now, trying to get the composition to my liking. There have been cows, horses and even dogs playing in front of the barn, but a few shots of some lambs at a recent agricultural show (the one where my marquee blew to bits so I was unable to trade) finally gave me to composition I was after.

I am about 4 hours into it so far and just working on blocking in the darkest areas of the drawing. From here I will begin work on all of that wood.

Black Labrador Puppy

Here is my latest addition to the Puppy Collection, a Black Labrador to go with the Chocolate Lab.

I find that, no matter how many breeds of puppy I draw, I always get asked for ones that I do not have. Because of this, I have made it my mission to get as many breeds added to my collection as possible. Of course, I could draw a hundred breeds and someone will always want a breed that I don't have!

Maybe, to get a Yellow Labrador added to my collection, I should just lighten this one in Photoshop - what do you think!?! No? Ok, onto the next...