Too much to do, so little time....

There is so much happening right now it's crazy!

I'm deep into study at the moment and it's very distracting as it's linked directly to artistic stuff and so the more I write about art, the more I want o just draw... Arrrgh!

My Open University course is about Entrpreneurial Opportunities, so I have decided to use my portraiture business as the subject.  http://www3.open.ac.uk/study/undergraduate/course/b322.htm

Well that's all very well until you start coming up with more ideas!  I found a great website for templates called Mirkwood Designs

Greetings

I had started thinking about producing greetings cards - which sent me off on a tour of UK printing houses to look for the best deals ;0)

Then I thought about presenting the cards as notelets or small packs of cards, blank inside, that could be used either to write a note or as a greetings card; that led me to Mirkwood because I want to be able to present them in some sort of wallet.  Mirkwood have templates for all kinds of things which distracted me even further...

Cats and Dogs on show

In the meantime I had made enquiries about booking cat and dog shows and the paperwork is now arriving for booking.  Hopefully, the first will be a cat show 6th March in Milton Keynes - so watch this space for more details.  I'm quite excited about that becuase I've never actually been to any cat or dog shows.

I will be demonstrating my skills and hopefully selling some of these new products - if I ever finish my assignment.

More study

In an earlier entry I mentioned that I started the Pet Portraiture course at the London Art college.  Well, I'm in the middle of assignment 2 now.  I'm producing three pieces -

1 acrylic of Henry sleeping (you can see the pastel version in the mian gallery of my web site). I wanted to compare the two mediums, so I will post up the results at the weekend. 

2 coloured pencil of this beautiful ginger kitten peeking from behind a curtain.  The image is royalty free and from a strangely named image library called Morguefile and it's by a great photographer called Scott Liddell 

3. Pastel of the two kittens washing which was posted in my last entry


Well I can't spend all day chatting - I have an assignment to finish ;0)

What people want...

I use RedBubble to showcase my work and I find it's a great help in understanding what people like and what they dislike.  I loved drawing Henry (in the basket) because of the detail in his fur and in the wicker.  I also loved the kittens shown in this picture, mainly because I liked the way they were interacting and the backlit fur. 
Of the two I would have said that Henry would have had the most interest shown in it, but on Red Bubble the opposite is true.  People have gone mad for the kittens, maybe it's the cuteness factor? 
I took the liberty of adding the edge of that blue blanket which has the effect of strengthening the blue eyes of the 'washing' kitten.  I can feel a whole series coming on now ;0)

Henry-in-a-basket (Makes a change from chicken!)

This is a piece that's been patiently waiting for me to finish it.  It's a piece for my college course and has been on and off the drawing board in between comissions.  I loved the wicker work on this basket, I think it's because it gave me a challenge other than fur. 

The cat's name is Henry and he was a bit startled to have his photo taken, but he stoically stuck to his basket!

New Year, new start!

Well Happy New Year to all of you!

It's been and interesting start to the year for me - I lost my old Dad on boxing day, so Christmas seems like months ago.  He had a terrible condition known as Lewy Body Dementia with which he battled for the last 4 years.  He wasn't a morbid man so I look back with much fondness and prefer to celebrate his life, and what a full and rich life it was.  I'm sure reminiscences will creep into this blog from time to time.  But it's from my Dad that I get my drawing ability.  He was into all sorts of arts, crafts and practical things and he encoraged this in me too.  So here's to ya Dad.  Hope you like my latest offerings ;0)