Here is Bea’s final scan along with a photo i took with some pencils to show scale. The portrait is a 12 x 10 drawing which was for a portrait for a birthday surprise a few days ago and I hope that it was well received!
More posts to follow soon of Jacks next stages and I am going to be working on the portrait of Judy next.
This is the very first stage of Jacks portrait, the initial drawing in stages with a sepia tone to cover the canvas. Nick will start to block the tones in now. The portrait is a 12 x 12 for a client based in the US and we think it is going to look stunning!
Things have been busy in the studio this week, I have created two portraits and this is the first, its a 9 x 9 pencil portrait of Elliot who is currently heading off to the Orkneys as I type for a birthday surprise. I hope that it arrives in time, fingers crossed the weather is good so the boat can get across with the mail 
Nick is working on a lovely portrait of Jack and ill post the very first stages soon and i have also completed Bea’s portrait so ill blog that also.
Here are the final stages and final scan of Sophie and Jack’s portrait. It is an oil on linen canvas 16 x 12 and Nick has put the final touches to it today The painting depicts our clients dogs in their local landscape which shows a very natural colour pallet and an overall warm feel with the rich Ochre colour of the grass behind. We hope our clients will be thrilled!
I have now completed Bea’s portrait and a final scan will follow!
Final stages of Sophie and Jack
We received two wonderful photos just before christmas from Catherine Nash of her framed pencil portrait of cats Nina and Smasher. Catherine received the portrait in 2014 as a surprise gift from her uncle, Fred Nash.
Catherine has very kindly posed with Nina and Smasher along with the portrait and sent photos for our website. We can’t thank Catherine enough for taking the time to do this for us and allowing us to use them online. They will be going on our website this week! 
Happy New Year to all of our readers..albeit a little delayed. Even though we haven’t posted here since christmas, we have been working back in the studio from Monday 29th getting ready for 2015. The yearly accounts are done and ready to take to the accountant and I have been working on a graphic design project for a local client for a few days which is now pretty much complete apart from a few odds and ends.
As some of our clients may have read, my pc gave up a week before Christmas. I think it was the hard drive, but it was around 6 years old so it could have been a number of things. For months and months I have had to wait over 10 minutes for everything to turn on in the morning and start working, google wouldn’t come up unless you went off to make a cup of tea!
My aim has been for a long time that when my pc went to pc heaven I would opt for a Mac as we use iPads and iPhones so it seemed like the obvious progression. I opted for the 27inch iMac and what a belter of a machine! Its been a long time since I researched computers, we use to be quite up on the gen of what speed they go and their technology but a lot has changed in the last 6 or 7 years. My new iMac has a solid state 1tb drive so no whiring parts, the screen is amazing, plus it is absolutely silent, which compared to my old pc is heavenly! It also goes at the speed of light and even with our snail paced internet, pages seem to load really fast. I am so pleased!
It did mean quite a learning curve with regards to how it worked, however playing with it over the christmas period I have now got the hang of it. I have also upgraded my Photoshop and Dreamweaver, the software I use to make our websites and create all of our client mockups and graphic design work. My old versions are pc and not mac compatible so I am now renting the latest versions from Adobe which is very exciting. I will always have the latest version which will be great as my versions were about 5 years old. Still learning where everything is on them – 2015 is becoming a year for learning I think!
Nicholas has taken a few days over christmas to do some maintenance jobs on the cottage. We have a long list of small jobs do here and are doing some inside jobs when the weather is rainy and looking forward to spring so we can get outside and do some of the jobs in the garden that need doing too.
Nicholas is now back to work and has been painting the portrait of Sophie and Jack over the last couple of days and I have added an update below. Ill have another tomorrow.
So heres to a happy and healthy 2015 for all of us, I hope that where ever you are, you all had a wonderful festive season and our next blog post will follow soon!
We would like to wish all of our clients a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New year! We are having a few days off over the festive season but we will be back to work very soon! More blog posts to follow in a few days time
Here is the next stage of the portrait of Sophie and Jack. Nick has blocked in the undertones of their coats along with the lighter tones and basis to their eyes and they are coming along really well.
This will be the last stage of the painting until we go back to work just after Christmas. We have a busy couple of days ahead cramming lots in before the christmas break seeing family and friends. Lily is off for a grooming appointment on Wednesday and we have friends coming for the day here so it will be very quiet without her as she is away for 5 hours or so. We are hoping then to have Christmas Eve off here relaxing!
Happily the new iMac arrived yesterday so I have had nose to screen over the weekend setting it up. I have pretty much got everything working as it should, all of my files are transferred over and software installed. Its now a case of learning where everything is as its just slightly different to a PC. Im completely sold on Apple and now wouldn’t go back, even only after two days.
Nick has managed to salvage bits from my old pc and has upgraded his with the good bits so at least nothing has been left to waste. Plus he has my lovely Dell 27inch monitor so he has two now connected to his computer, one for painting from and one for surfing. Its quite space age in his part of the studio!
We took a lovely photo of Lily today and I will post it here very soon, she is a little tousled as her fur is long but she looks happy amongst the tinsel. So a post will follow very soon.
Here are the very first stages of Sophie and Jack, a 16 x 12 oil on Italian Linen canvas. Nick has drawn both Sophie and Jack out and laid down the base tones. He has started adding in the lovely tones and colours behind of the field and the whole portrait has a lovely feel to it already, I think overall this one is going to be beautifully peaceful!
I will have more stages tomorrow.
Here is the final scan along with some photos I took of Tai and Chi’s artwork before packing and sending a few days ago. The portrait is for a UK client, however it has been commissioned as a Christmas gift for the daughter who is in University in Berkeley. The portrait is of two beautiful and elegant Siamese cats at 14 x 10 size and I hope the recipient is thrilled!
We have had quite a couple of days here as yesterday my PC decided not to turn on, we think there is a a hard drive issue. I have managed to amazingly get back to the desktop after lots of researching and testing and have backed up all of our artwork – Phew!
I am back on the PC today managing to turn it on, hopefully doing my last stint of administration for the business before Christmas. Its great that we will be having a few days break as it will mean we can research and purchase a new system, and i am going over to Apple. We already have iPads and iPhones so it seems to make a lot of sense to be streamlined. So although things here have been a little fraught with regards to technical side, its very exiting to think in the coming week i could be set up with an iMac.
Nick has now started Sophie and Jack and I will have the first stages posted here later today.
Here are the final photos of Joeys portrait framed and the close up photos of Nicks hand on the portrait to give scale. Joey’s portrait was an 18 x 14 oil on canvas and it was the first time Nick had used the amazing new canvas we have found, such beautiful quality and the hardwood (tulipwood) is superb. The portrait was then framed by our lovely framer Jane in the Traditional Flat frame with a wheat inner linen slip. The cream colour of the slip really brings out the lighter tones in Joeys coat.
I have already added Joey to our website along with the in ‘Up close and detailed’ photos and the video too Joey is on his journey now to the recipient in the US and we hope that it will be a lovely surprise this christmas.
I am now and going to take photos of my pencil portrait of Siamese cats Tai & Chi, pack it up and take it to the post office before the last post goes today. Hopefully I’ll be back in time to add the scan here, if not it will be first thing tomorrow!
Here are the close up photos of Schnapps along with photos of her framed! She looked beautiful here in the studio, we framed her in the Subtle bronze with inner linen slip which really bought out her white blaze. I have already added Schnapps to our website today along with the close up photos on the ‘Up close and detailed’ gallery and to Nicks Facebook page too. We hope that you like her!
Its very busy here in the studio, I’m having a catch up admin day similar to yesterday and my final pencil portrait will be packed up and taken to the post office this afternoon. A few more blog posts to follow today so stay tuned!
