I’ve been wanting to try an extra large piece for ages but didn’t know until recently (and thanks to Leslie Harrison) that the velour I love using comes in a 40″ sheet. It was a little pricey as it came the whole way from Dakota Pastels to Northern Ireland, but well worth it and arrived well wrapped and quite quickly too!
The full sheet is 28″x40″ and I ordered a selection of colours, white, sandy and grey. This commission was what motivated my search for the giant paper so I really enjoyed this piece. I definitely plan to make good use of the other sheets I bought.
I went to photograph these gorgeous animals at their rural home on the North Coast of Ireland. The backdrop and lighting were just as they were on the day, fresh!
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The finished painting ‘The Belties’ pastel on velour 40″x28″ |
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The reference photo I took. I had very little to change about this. I liked how a couple of cows were cut in half and I just removed the cow on the bottom right as I thought he didn’t add anything. |
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I’ve blocked in the large areas of sky and sea. It’s taken a long time to get the gradient to smooth out and there’s still a lot of layering and blending to do. |
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Some more of the land just peeping from behind the cows’ backs. |
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I’ve added a bit more movement to the water with small marks of orange and blue and tried to add a bit of reflection on the water in front of the island. |
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Only working the tops of the cows at the moment as I’ll have to do more to the grass before I can complete their legs. |
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Adding some of those light fleshy orange highlights which just bring it to life. I put them on quite crudely and neaten after. |
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I feel like I’m being watched now 🙂 |
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The grass areas have orange purple and yellow dotted through it along with the lovely greens from Unison. I love their greens! |
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A close up section from the painting. I had this painting professionally photographed as I normally get my work scanned but this was far too big! |
Hope you’ve enjoyed the progress. I’m going to get working on another big project again in the near future but have some other fun commissions to work on at the moment. Check back soon for some more paintings in progress and thanks for visiting my blog!
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This is so wonderfull. Great work
Thanks so much whoever you are, really appreciate you taking time to leave feedback 🙂
Totally awesome piece Emma, your work always amazes me, here and on Facebook, you are truly gifted…
Thank you Kevin, such kind words you always have about my work. Really appreciate you visiting the blog and taking time to leave a comment 🙂
hey Emma – love the way you hare your process with us – really neat to see! thanks for that. Great painting – love the colours!
Thank you Ellie! I like sharing the progress and the blog has become part of my process now as it's a nice record to keep of everything I paint. Wish I'd started doing it ages ago! Thanks for visiting and commenting 🙂
Great to see the process in photos, fair play to you for having the courage to paint such a large piece, love the repetitive patterns in the line of cows, and the way they're cropped at the pictures edge.
Thanks Aidan! It was a beast and was quite daunting at the start as I'm so used on the smaller scale. I loved these cows, such beautiful animals and they literally created the composition for me by standing exactly how they are! Half cows and all! The frame was pretty big too, lots of fun though will have to try something else big now! Do you ever work on a very large scale?
I’ve been casting around looking for an art form to embrace me for some months. I’m returning to my passion after many years of absence and I’m drawn to your pastel animal portraits and easy style of teaching. Every question in my head is answered as I watch your work come to life. Thank you for your inspiration. Tricia
What a lovely message to receive Tricia, thank you! Many artists inspired what I am doing. Another animal artist you should look at if you haven’t already is Vic Bearcroft. He started my journey on the velour and although I think I work a little differently he was extremely generous with his information and tips and is a wonderful teacher. That really inspired to me to share what I found too. Enjoy being creative!