Wishing you all a very Happy, Healthy and Successful 2007

I am going to Scotland until Tuesday to celebrate the New Year in style, or as much style as possible with two collie pups in attendance. On my return home I am going into hospital for a few days, so I will be missing until around the 15/01. I just wanted to wish you all a Very Merry New Year, and hope that 2007 brings only good things.

This is the last photograph of the pups for 2006, the next ones should be from a beach in Scotland.

I have also started a new grey cat 'with a splash' to match the first one. It is all Coloured Pencil on Arches Hot Press Watercolour paper.

Demonstration of how to draw a Cat's Eye in Coloured Pencil

A quick hello from Rio who is progressing really well. He is now able to lead a normal puppy life with the other Glenspey collies.

I am often asked how I draw the eyes in my macro cat series, so I thought I'd do a quick demonstration to show you.

As this is just a demo I haven't been careful with the shape of the eye and as the diagrams are bigger than my drawing the colour might look less smooth than in real life.

I first draw the shape of my eye using Polychromos Paynes Grey, I indicate the pupil in the same, but use graphite to define the highlights then I can easily erase later.

The second step is covering the pupil in Black Grape taking care to reserve the highlights, and washing the iris with Cream, both colours are from the Prismacolor range (used to be Karisma in the UK).

I always use those initial colours no matter what colour the finished eye colour will be.
In the second diagram.I have strengthened the line round the eye using Polychromos Black Soft and softened the graphite round the highlights. Black Soft is a lovely pencil to use, as its name suggests it is a little less dense than black.

The next stage is to place a wash of Polychromos Indigo Blue over the pupil. Most of the iris is then washed with Deco Aqua except the little bit at the bottom and the edges which get another wash of cream.

I again put a wash over the pupil, this time with Polychromos Black Soft. I have completed another layer of Deco Aqua but changed the cream to Jasmine.

All the above layers are completed with a really sharp point. From the next layer I will start using different pressure to indicate marks in the eye.

I have added a layer of black to the pupil, then layered Polychromos Light Aqua over the Deco Aqua, put a layer of cream over the whole area except round the pupil and then another layer of Deco Aqua.
I've put the eye in context by adding some fur round the it using raw umber, dark brown and black.

Back with the eye I used Aquamarine with a really sharp point to start defining marks, then washed the whole thing with cream pressing on slightly harder

I darkened the pupil againwith black, put some more Aquamarine marks in, then added two layers using Jasmine and Deco Aqua working them in to give the effect I'm looking for. I have started to add some Black Grape for shadow.The eye is just starting to look like it has some depth.

I once again go over the pupil, this time using Black Grape.

Added light green over the shadow and jasmine around the edges, then layered cream with medium pressure. Added light blue in the large highlight

I then layered white over everything except the pupil, worked more deco aqua, light green and jasmine in, again looking to create depth. I took a little of the blue out of the top of the highlight, then used white with a really heavy pressure.I added indigo to the shadow.At actual size this is looking reasonable.I will work another layer of cream then blend using a colourless blender.

I hope this has been useful, if you would like a demonstartion of fur or nose, ears etc just leave me a comment to let me know.

Good News for Rio

Rio went back to the hospital today and has continued to make good progress. He can now have his splint off during the day, we need to replace it at night for a few days, but he can now start to use his jaw.

The vet was pleased with his progress and determined that there was a good degree of callus forming, so the jaw is fairly stable. Obviously he will continue to need a high degree of supervision for a while, but at least he can start to live a normal life.



We visited our friends last night who own the Norsvana Norwegian Forest Cats and they gave me the 2007 Norsk Skogkatt Society Calendar. The image for January is the painting I did of John and Caroline Tipper's Ch Tiganlea Prince Dante.

If you like Norwegian Forest Cats then a visit to either website is worthwhile.