Something a bit different

I have just wrapped up my latest Pet Portrait for taking to the Post Office and I now don't have any commissions to do. This is a very strange feeling as I have had at least one on the waiting list for the last few years now. But i'm all up to date. I have also added Pickles, Pebbles and Arillus to the Group Portraits Gallery.

However, I don't rely on the portraits for my income as I also work part time in a 'proper job', so it is actually quite nice to be able to work on some of my own artwork. I have plans for some ACEOs and OSWOA (more about them in another post), as well as some larger pastel dog paintings.

I have also been working on something a bit different - making Jewellery. I love crafting and have wanted to try jewellery making for a long time now, so have been practising over the last few months and have made a couple of pieces to sell. I have plans for making my own web shop but currently have them for sale on Etsy, which is a website for the sale of all craft and vintage items. The craft items are going to be for sale under the banner Northern Dawn. My etsy shop is at Northern Dawn. Please note all the prices are in US dollars as it is an American site.

Some photographs of some of my Jewellery:

Cascade necklace and earring set, with pink woven beads & glass fuschia, teal & blue beads.
FOR SALE - $30.00 (approx £19.00)

Cascade necklace containing purple glass foil beads and amber glass discs.
FOR SALE - $21.00 (approx £13.00)

Pebbles, Pickles & Arillus

Arillus has had another update on my latest coloured pencil pet portrait. I have added some of his chest fur to bring him in line with Pebbles & Pickles. Here is the portrait currently:

Arillus:

Pickles:

Pebbles:

Pet Portrait changes

I was asked to change Arillus a little on my most recent pet portrait to make the fur around his face fuller. I have been working on it today. Here are the changes:

Before:

After:



And all together:

Pet Portrait completed - Pebbles, Pickles & Arillus

I have finally completed the coloured pencil pet portrait of Pebbles, Pickles & Arillus. It is 12" x 16" and was quite a challenge, particularly Arillus. He was the first white dog i've ever drawn in coloured pencil and on white paper! Here it is:

A close up of the finished Arillus, completed today

And all together, (L-R) Pebbles, Arillus & Pickles.

Website updates

Again, I realised I hadn't been adding any of my new portraits to the galleries after completing them for the last few months, so have amended that this evening and have new portraits added to the Coloured Pencil Dogs and Graphite Pencil Dogs galleries.

I have also removed two sections completely from the website. One is the pets section which I simply never got round to doing anything with and the other is the shop. I did have one or two sales from the shop, but it wasn't really working as it was and I have a few ideas relating to the shop which I want to explore differently. As well as my art I also make cards and have recently begun to make jewellery so am thinking of setting up a shop to sell a combination of these items as well as original art and prints and keep Laura's Pet Portraits purely for the pet portraits.

I gave it a bit of a tidy up behind the scenes too and moved all the files i don't currently use off of my webspace to free up some space and also updated the copyright notice to say 2009, as it still said 2006!! So, all in all I have had a website spring clean and will be back to drawing tomorrow.