Young Pretender and the possession of the studio chair

Last weekend I went up to Scotland, which for me was cow heaven as they were everywhere. I painted a black Highland Cow whilst I was up there and unusually for me also included the nose ring. It was a coloured piece and as I felt the ring was similar in colour to the horns it would contrast well with the black body. It's currently drying and after it's had a coat of varnish I'll put it on the blog. So, this week I resumed work on "Young Pretender" and as I've been asked about it a couple of times this week I thought I'd put it on the blog.

This was what I'd achieved after the Art in the Pen weekend. You can see that the face still has not had it's coat of oil paint and that the acrylic underpainting is still visible.

Here I've started to work down the face in oil and at that stage I'd still not painted the eyes because I need to sit down to do that and the cat had taken up permanent residence on the studio chair. It was just easier to let him have possession and I continued with other parts of the painting.

The battle for the chair continued with the cat only relinquishing possession during small windows of opportunity for the necessary and if he gets boy cat cystitis then he only has himself to blame!

By this stage I had duped the cat into thinking that a polystyrene box filled with bubblewrap and topped with one of his blankets was somewhere he should definitely not be so naturally he seized immediate possession and vacated the chair meaning I could at last sit down and complete an eye. This requires a steadier hand and so I prefer to use a mahl stick...which in reality is a brush handle but it does the job..and it was cheap!

This was the last bit of the painting and I generally paint the nose last in all of my work because it's usually the part of the cow that's closest to the viewer. I always paint the nose in one session and as the cat was still claiming territory rights on the box and maintaining his occupation I could paint the detail in relative comfort! The actual bull I was basing this image on was frothing at the mouth which didn't look attractive so I painted it without that - fortunately I've painted quite a few cow lips now..not a phrase I ever thought I'd be laying claim to..so I could go for the non frothy look!

This is the completed piece at 30" x 30" although it still needs to dry and have it's varnish on which brings out the detail. This image probably looks a bit more magenta than he does in reality. I think he does have quite a soft face and whilst he is still a juvenile will have to contend himself with being a "Young Pretender"

In the original pencil study for "Young Pretender" I've included the show bridle and nose ring which I chose not to paint in the final piece. He also had a white patch visible on his left ear which I felt would have been distracting so I left it out.

So that's it..cows are temporarily put to one side as I begin the commission piece of two Jack Russells which have been in the planning stage for some weeks now as different photos have been taken and the owner has finally chosen a shortlist of possibles.