"Do you do dogs ?"

A strange question I'm sure you'll agree but one I've been asked a time or two recently.

Firstly a slightly belated 'Merry Christmas' to everyone, sorry I've just been so busy plus I'm never, ever prepared for Christmas anyway,it always seems to take me by surprise.

This will be my final post of 2010 and I'm very curious to see what 2011 will bring. I thought that I would post some examples of dog portraits that I have been asked to paint, something different and very enjoyable to work on ... enjoy.

A Happy New Year to one and all.

Gift caricature examples.

Here are few more examples of recent gift caricatures that I've painted for clients. They really are a great gift idea (I know I'm biased) and can be used to commemorate a funny situation or event, they don't just have to be for Christmas, birthdays etc. We've all heard the adage 'a picture is worth a thousand words'.

Recent Commissions ...

Recent portraits ...

Danny Trejo caricature Sketch

I've not posted anything for a while (sorry) here's a quickie caricature of Danny Trejo.

Ronnie James Dio Caricature

A sneak peak at a caricature that I'm currently working on. This is "Rock God" Ronnie James Dio who sadly died earlier this year.
If you like your music a little louder and heavier than the norm, I highly recommend having a listen to his Dio album 'Holy Diver' a classic in the genre.

Tony Blair - A Journey - Portrait and Caricature Combination

A Journey - Tony Blair Portrait and Caricature combination.

I wanted to complete a piece that would combine a caricature and a portrait. I used the idea of the book A Journey by Tony Blair to try and formulate my idea.

Firstly I painted the caricature version of Tony Blair which I posted earlier this week on it's own. I then painted an separate portrait of Mr. Blair using the cover of the book as reference and then combined the two and distorted the angle to give me the look I wanted to reflect the cover of the book. You can see the full portrait of Tony Blair here.

Detail from Tony Blair Portrait

It was a lot of work which I hope resulted in a good strong piece for my portfolio.

Tony Blair Caricature

Apparently reported as the best selling autobiography ever by book chain Waterstones Tony Blair seems to have created something of a stir with his recently published memoirs entitled 'A Journey' any likely he looks so happy.

Here's my painting of Tony Blair to commemorate this momentous feat, there is actually more to come involving this caricature (which is purely a self promotion piece) all will be revealed later in the week.

I'll resist any comments revolving my views on Mr Blair or politics ... now where in this book does he apologize for the Iraq War ?

The finished portrait - Gemma

My completed portrait of my stepdaughter Gemma reflecting the various stages of her life and most importantly one happy wife whom I painted the picture for.

Completed portraits

Gemma aged 2

Gemma aged 10

Gemma aged 27

Above are the 3 individual completed portraits that I have painted of my step daughter Gemma from various stages in her life. This initially came as a request from my wife who wanted a picture to capture her daughters life as one image, not knowing how the compilation would work I decided to paint each portrait individually to start with the intention of playing around with the combined image later.

Sherlock Holmes Caricature

I thoroughly enjoyed the BBC's recent updated version of Sherlock Holmes starring Benedict Cumberbatch as Holmes and Martin Freeman as Dr Watson. A much too short run of three one and a half hour episodes with the final episode leaving the viewers in a state of suspense with one hell of a cliffhanger, well worth a watch if you missed it.
Here is my caricature of Benedict Cumberbatch as the great detective Sherlock Holmes.

James Hetfield Caricature

This is the finished painting from a sketch I did of James Hetfield from the group Metallica. The overall pose in the reference photograph was a little tongue in cheek to start with and I exaggerated the expression and overall look of the caricature more than I would normally. I think it works ... what do you think?

James Hetfield Caricature

The original sketch

A recent gift caricature commission

This is a recent gift caricature that I painted for 'Trevor' who was leaving his job. He worked at the local 6th Form College and the gift caricature was from the Psychology department. I really enjoyed doing this painting and had fun with some of the things/ideas that I was asked to include;'real bottles of whiskey, a tomato plant (the love of gardening) and a sarcastic, funny leaving message. I also put in a couple of little in-jokes crossing over the gardening with Psychology in the titles of the 2 books.

'Trevor' sketch

A new portrait ...

Earlier this year I painted a portrait of David Tennant, purely as a practise piece, to get me back into the flow after a long absence. I really enjoyed doing the painting and at the time mentioned that I would be doing more.

This is a preview of one of three portraits I'm doing of my step daughter Gemma for my wife, each portrait from a different part of her life - as a baby,a young girl and as she is today.

Metallica - James Hetfield Sketch

Metallica's James Hetfield !!!!

Wayne Rooney Caricature

As world Cup fever is about to grip the world I thought it would be an appropriate time to paint Mr Wayne Rooney.

Keith Myatt Caricature

This is my friend Keith Myatt, ceramicist by day and wrestler by night. Keith has been wrestling for over 20 years and has met and wrestled some of the top names in the industry (Ric Flair, Bret Hart, Jake 'the snake' Roberts etc etc) and as old age is catching up with him (nearly 51) he's now also moving over into the world of acting.

Don't let the scary, hard man pose fool you the blokes got a heart of gold and a great friendly personality but be warned if you ever meet him, and he corners you ... he can talk a glass eye asleep and for the love of God, never, ever leave any chocolate eclairs lying around ;)

For more on Keith and what he does follow the link - Keith Myatt.

Motorheads Lemmy Kilmister

I have always been a huge music fan particularly in the rock/metal genre and in my teens Motorhead were one of my favourite groups. Born in my home city of Stoke on Trent Lemmy is one of Rocks true legendary characters and a true "Beer drinker and Hellraiser" that's still going strong well into his sixty's and not an ounce of a healthy life style in sight.

Johnny Depp Caricature

The General Election ...

The general election is rapidly approaching and everyone is yearning for us to vote for them, this seems the perfect time to do a caricature of David Cameron the leader of the Conservative Party.

David Tennant as Dr Who.

I painted this portrait using Photoshop. its been a long time since I have painted or drawn anything so this was something of a practice piece. I must admit, I'm quite pleased with how it turned out and I think that portraits are something that I might try to do more of in the future.