Laurie McGinley

Idea #5

A couple more ideas, a little more space, and closed mouth on both…. hmmmm….

Idea #4

Idea #3

Idea #2

Idea #1

2/14 – compositions

At this point I’m working on fine tuning the composition.  The layout will be landscape.  Here are a couple of ideas…

New Drawing -

Well here goes.  My next project has started, and it should be fun and challenging.  This one is much larger then I’ve done in a few years, that alone will be a challenge.  The dogs are Irish Terriers, both with loads of personality and very different from each other.  The roughed up composition is below.  Now to fine tune that to reflect the 2 individuals.  Round eyes vs almond eyes, short rough coat vs longer softer coat, stately and dignified vs the rougue ball of energy.  Hopefully I can capture bits of that in this drawing!

11/6/2011 – Update

10/24/2011 – Well, I’m still playing… I pulled back the color from the trees, too intense for what I had in mind.  Just want more of a hint… so the left and middle section trees are nearly complete with the grapite overlay.  Making some progress on the rock work.  The texture is really challenging me to not focus on detail, because well it just won’t take it.  So that feels different to me as well.  But overall I think I can still capture the desired effect.

10/21/2011 – Thoughts so far… the graphitint is fun to work with.  I’m brushing with water after laying down blocks of color. Once that is dry, I’ve been going over the color with graphite to give more definiition and tone down the color.  The tooth of the canvas, tho a smooth canvas, is more then I’m use to working with.  On the stonework shadow side, I’ve brushed graphite dust to get the tone into the indentations.  I think having the canvas mounted on a hard board with feel better as well.  The give of the canvas I like with oils and acrylic, but is a little tougher to work with pencil, almost too much give.  All that said, I’m liking what is happening so far…

Trying a a little bit of a new technique on this one.  It is small, 9 x 12, on canvas, mixed media.  Graphitint pencil and graphite.   I’m intrigued with the strong lighting as well as the ruin itself.  The idea is to use some color in the background, which is thickly treed, and a bit in the forground grass.  The rest will be graphite… so we’ll see what comes of it.

Oh my gosh, it is nearly October!!  Wow… busy summer and now here comes the holiday season (at least if you believe what the stores are selling already…)

As for my art… I have only booked one show so far this season.   
2011 Art Sale November 19 and 20
Olympia Armory, 515 Eastside Street, Olympia, WA

I’m next working on a book illustration project…  this is a new venture for me and I’m very excited about it.  More to come on that over the next few months I hope…

It has been a very busy year, both at work and with portrait comissions.  As a result, it has been a year since my last Irish project. It is time for another one.  I’m pretty excited about the idea.  As soon as I get the mockup scanned I’ll get it posted here. 

Stay tuned, as they say…

8/31/2011 – where does the time go?!  Here it is the last day of August….   And I believe I have finished Comet.  I’m please with how it has come out.  Several challenges on this one, the different layers and lay of the fur most specifically.  I’ve really enjoyed working on him, and a side benefit for me is I now look at my Golden Retriever and see more details about how her features. 

8/12/2011 – so close to being done… yet… not done yet…

8/4/2011 – nearly there now… another week and Coment should be finished!

7/27/2011 Ah yes… now for that sweet smiling head.  Still more fine tuning to do on grass, legs and neck, but making progress…

7/18/2011

Swinging into the last quarter of the piece!  Actually maybe 2/3rds done at this point.  I’ve been enjoying playing with (ok, drawing) all that wavy fur.  There is lots going on in the neck by way of layers of fur.  So this week, lay the neck out and start “sculpting” those layers.  Also will continue to refine the grass and forelegs.

7/7/2011

Moving to the shoulder next, more work on the grass.

7/3/2011

I’ve been working up the flank and towards the shoulder this week. As I do, I have been going back to other areas to fine tune.  I’ve noticed this on other drawings or paintings I’ve done… by drawing something and needing to be aware of the details, when I see that object or place in real life I’m so much more aware of those details.  So while working on Comet’s fur, the waves, and texture, I’m really noticing the textures and details of the fur on my golden.  I like that

6/26/2011…

This weekend was turned over to revamping my studio space now that I’ve been using it for a year.  There were some things I wanted to change up to make the space a little less crowded.  So, not much drawing happened over the weekend.  Also had a nice visit with my pups breeders and the 3 littermates they are keeping.  They came over for the afternoon.  Found out that last week, their sire was found to have advanced liver cancer.  Quite out of the blue that news.  He was a real sweet dog, one of the reasons I chose to go with this litter actually.  Sad news as he was still fairly young.

So here is the latest update on Comet as of the end of last week.  Now that my “space” is put back together I should make some good progress again this week.

6/17/2011…

6/15/2011  More work on hindquarter and adding grass.

6-10/2011

Another morning’s work on the hindquarters, defining the lay of the fur, and tail swish.

6/8/2011

Working from left to right on this one.  So far have the background started.  Using a soft brush and graphite dust to add tone here.  The tail and part of the back leg are started, mostly 4h and h graphite at this point.

I’m starting a new portrait and would like to share a little of his story…

Special companion.

Comet (a ‘he’) has that permanent smile on his face, the awesome white blaze on his forehead, and the most expressive eyes. Which is astonishing because he is completely blind…Comet was found wandering the streets, no identification, he wasn’t fixed, was starved, had heartworms and other parasites, and was in generally bad shape. It is a miracle that he found his way into our home, we are so grateful to the Delaware Valley Golden Retriever Rescue for their rehabilitation program. He has been with us for 6 years now and we have no idea how old he is but the vet guesses he’s around 10. … His tail never stops wagging and he sticks to me like Velcro over the weekend. Every day I still feel his gratitude for giving him a forever home…

This will be an 8 x 10 graphite drawing.  I’m hoping I can capture the wagging tail and smiling face on this very special fellow.  Hope you’ll follow along as I post progress updates over the next few weeks.

So with Penny completed, the next piece is also a commission. A golden retriever who has such a sweet face.  I swear he was smiling in the first picture I’d seen of him…  more to come…

Well, been a long time coming for this one to get done.  So much happening the past few months it has been challenging to get time to work on art work!  But… things seem to be settling in again.  (And my puppy is getting older which helps!)

So here is the final scan of this little piece.  5 x 7 graphite with color pencil.  Thanks to Penny’s owner for her patience and understanding.

Well, maybe 2 or 3 hours and I’ll have this one completed.  It has been a challenge and I’ve learned quite a bit.  I’m not yet very comfortable with using the color pencils to enhance a graphite drawing, but I am happy with the effect achieved so far.   I was able to spend some time with the dog and her person a couple of weeks ago.  It was very helpful to see, again, the dog after having spent time working from photos.

… update…

here she is… may be a little bit of fine tuning over the next couple of days… but pretty much done.

Spent some time last weekend taking more photos of the subject.  Trying to get a better idea of just how much and where her apricot points show.  The trick I think is going to be hinting at it without shouting color!  So I am trying to lay down just a little color with water soluable pencil and a light wash… Then will go back over with pencil to pull up the details again.

Moving into some color now to pick up the green bed and red ball.