Red Panda

So I finally made a painting specifically for my amazing husband. I asked him what he wanted me to paint and he wanted a red panda. Because they are so cute and playful, they are his favourite animal. After painting this little guy, they are now one of my favourite animals too.

The royalty free refrence photo that was used for the piece is from: https://pmp-art.com/

The reference photo was taken by Paul Sherman.

This was created with Faber-Castell Polychromos coloured pencils, and Prismacolor Primer coloured pencils on Langton Prestige Cold Press, 140lb, watercolour paper by Daler-Rowney. Gamsol Odourless Mineral Spirits was used to blend the coloured pencils.

I had never used cold pressed watercolour paper with coloured pencils before, or odorless mineral spirits. I must say that they are my new favourite mediums when it comes to working with coloured pencils.

Thanks for reading and cheers,

Kai

This beautiful pup's name is Kai. I am very happy with the way this piece turned out.

This was created with Faber-Castell Polychromos coloured pencils and Prismacolor Primer coloured pencils on DURALAR_POLYESTER_FILM.

This was my first time using Duralar and for the most part, I enjoyed working with it. I liked how rich and saturated the coloured pencils appeared and it was incredibly easy to get fine details. But you could not put any more then four layers of coloured pencils on it which was frustrating.

This was created a while ago but I forgot to upload it.

Cheers,

The Surveyor

Happy New Years everyone! It has been a long time since I last posted anything.

The reference photo that was used for this painting is from Pixabay.
https://pixabay.com/en/eagle-raptor-bird-beak-eyes-377204/

I highly recommend Pixabay for anyone looking for royalty free reference photos. :)

This painting was created with a Wacom Intuos Creative Pen & Touch Tablet (small) and the free painting program, Krita 2.9.

I created this painting for a group challenge which was set up by an incredible artist (and one of my heroes) named Lisa Clough. Check her out! https://lachri.com/ She has so many great resources for learning to paint and draw. I love her so much!

I learned a LOT from doing this piece.

Thanks for looking. :)

Little Prince

My mother snaped the photo that was used for this piece. I loved the photo so much and the toad was so cute that I just had to draw him.

Little Prince, 2013
6"x 6"
Graphite on canvas
Sold

Marsland Centre

This is a wood-burning of the Marsland Centre in Waterloo, Ontario, Canada. Did you know that this building is 190 feet tall?

To create this piece I used a new wood burner called the Walnut Hollow Creative Versa-Tool which came highly recommended by one of my favourite woodburning artists, Minisa Robinson.

I am almost ashamed to say this but I think I like it better than my expensive Razertip burner.

Marsland Centre, 2015
9"x 12"
Pyrography and coloured pencil on birch plywood
Available for purchase this September (2015) at the Button Factory.

Zen

This started off as a zendoodle. I liked it so much that I decided to tweak the design a bit and burn the design onto a piece of birch plywood.

Zen, 2014
6"x 12"
Pyrography on birch plywood
$110

Please email me if you are interested in purchasing this piece.

Uptown Parkade Encompassed

This is my latest wood burning piece titled Uptown Parkade Encompassed. This piece will be on display this September at a local art centre called the Button Factory. It will be my first solo show and I am so excited. 

I originally did this piece in graphite on canvas but it looks so much better as a wood burning piece. 

Uptown Parkade Encompassed, 2015
11"x 14"
Pyrography and coloured pencil on birch plywood
Available for purchase this September (2015) at the Button Factory.

White-breasted Nuthatch

Here is the final photo of the White-breasted Nuthatch piece. The reference photo was generously provided by Kathy Waybrant. I am so thankful to her for giving me permission to use her photo.

This piece will be donated to a local event called Arti Gras Goes to Rio, which will help raise funds for arts programming in the community. If you are interested in attending this event or would like to know more, please check out this link: http://www.eventbrite.ca/e/arti-gras-goes-to-rio-tickets-13906068425

White-breasted Nuthatch, 2015
6"x 6"
Pyrography and coloured pencil on birch plywood
Donated to Arti Gras Goes to Rio silent auction

Hespeler Heritage Centre Column

This is one of the columns from the old Hespeler City Hall (Cambridge, Ontario, Canada) which is now the Hespeler Heritage Centre. It was so ornate and beautiful that I just had to draw/paint it!

Hespeler Heritage Centre Column, 2013
12"x 16"
Graphite on canvas

Sold

Thanks for reading this and cheers!

Hydro pole

Although this piece is sold and was created last year, I felt it was important to post it to my Blog anyway. It is a good piece and should be part of my on-line portfolio despite the fact that the only photo I have of it does not do it justice.

This pole is located in Galt, Cambridge, Ontario, Canada, just across the street from a great restaurant called Tonys Family Diner. :)

Hydro pole, 2013
6"x 12"
Pyrography and colored pencil on birch plywood

Thanks for reading this and cheers!

Thinking

I find that when I stop talking and take the time to think something through, the answer will come to me. This is the smallest graphite piece I have done yet, but it was fun to work on.

Graphite on Bristol mounted on birch plywood
4"x4"
$25

Please email me if you are interested in purchasing this piece. Shipping is additional.

Thanks for reading this and cheers!

Train of Thought

This piece started as a doodle that I liked so much that I decided to make it into a Pyrography piece. It was a fun one.

Train of Thought

Pyrography on birch plywood

8"x10" 

$80

 Please email me if you are interested in purchasing this piece. Shipping is additional.

Thanks for reading this and cheers!

Blush 2

Blush 2 was created to be donated to charity. There was an accident with the first Blush piece which created a tiny imperfection, so I made this one. But no one noticed the imperfection on the first Blush piece, so I realized I was worrying about nothing, and decided to donated it. So "Blush 2" is now for sale. It is a bit different than the one that was donated, but I think that is a good thing. I also just found out that Virginia Craig (the wife of Doug Craig who is the Mayor of the City of Cambridge, Ontario) purchased the first Blush piece at the charity auction. How cool is that?

6"x6" Coloured pencils and watercolour on watercolour paper. $150

Framed and matted in a 9 ¾ " x 9 ¾ "" IKEA RIBBA black frame.

Please email me if you are interested in purchasing this piece. Shipping is additional.

Thanks for reading this and cheers!

Molly

This is Molly. She lives on the property where my studio is located and she is a big sweetheart. One day she was sleeping on the patio and I photographed her because she looked so content and calm. I am sooooo pleased with the way this piece turned out. I used Stonehenge paper and I have to admit that I am in love with this paper. I think I will be using it from now on for my coloured pencil work. :)

This piece was create with Faber Castell Polychromos coloured pencils and Prismacolour Premier coloured pencils on Stonehenge paper.

It is framed and matted in a 20 ½ x "20 ½ " IKEA RIBBA black frame.

The price is $525.00 and includes the frame and matt. Please email me if you are interested in purchasing this piece. Shipping is additional.

Thanks for reading this and cheers!

Painting at the Preston Towne Market this Thursday

This Thursday I will be painting at the Preston Towne Market to help advertise the art event, A Day & A Night. Please come out, say hi and get some local fresh food and flowers from the vendors.
Time: 9am to 2pm
Where: Central Park in the Preston Downtown Core (corner of King E. and Argyle) Cambridge.
Hope to see you there!

Num nums (Squirrel)

This graphite piece was created from a photo taken by the very talented photographer Kathy Waybrant. She very generously gave me permission to use her photo to create this piece.

This piece is framed and matted in a 20 ½ "20 ½ " IKEA RIBBA black frame.

This piece is $375.00 and includes the frame. Please email me if you are interested in purchasing this piece.

Shipping is additional.

In other news I will be updating my blog at least every Wednesday. That way I have a somewhat predictable blog schedule.

Thanks for reading this and cheers!

Art Show at Steph's Cafe in Hespeler

I am pleased to announce that my artwork is now on display at Steph's Cafe in Hespeler, Cambridge, Ontario. :D

This is my first public solo show so I am very excited about it.  So if you have time, please head down to Steph's Cafe to check it out. :)

Steph's Cafe:
2 Queen St East
Hespeler, Ontario
(519) 260-0782

Just a reminder that my work is still on display at The Grand Cafe in Galt, Cambridge, Ontario. So if you have not seen this awesome group show yet, make sure you do before it is over (the show ends July 14th). :D

As usual, thanks for reading this and cheers!

Little Princess

This is my sister's beautiful Himalayan/Ragdoll cat, Yuki. She is my sister's little princess.

Yuki is usually a very skittish cat, but this one day she was chillin in a box and she actually let me take a photo of her.  Now I need to draw my sister's other cat Hermi someday. :)

11 ½" x 11 ½" ; Steadtler Mars Lumograph pencils on Strathmore Bristol vellum surface paper and coloured pencils; 15 hours

This piece is framed and matted in a RIBBA IKEA black frame.

This piece is $300.00 and includes the frame. Please email me if you are interested in purchasing this piece. 

Shipping is additional. 

Thanks for reading this and cheers!

Painting at Puslinch Lake during the Lakeside Living 2014 Home Tour

I had so much fun painting at the Lakeside Living 2014 Home Tour today. Thanks so much to all the great people who came out, to Donna O Krafka and Jennifer Depencier for organizing a day of painting, and to Birdena and Dave for graciously allowing me to paint their beautiful property. 

Today I decided to really be spontaneous with the help of Karlyn Holman's techniques. I am so happy with the results.

Tomorrow I will sign, document and properly photograph them.

Thanks for reading this!

Time to move on

So I decided to re-due this piece again but in watercolour. I kinda ruined the first version that was done in pencil crayon. Whoops!

I am really struggling with this one, so for now, I am going to put this one aside and move on. I obsess too much over one piece to the point where it saps all the fun and creativity out of it.

I also wanted to inform all of you that Brenda Murray, Cathy Amos and myself run a local urban sketching group and we recently had an article about our group published in the Record (our local news paper).

Check it out: http://www.therecord.com/news-story/4432413-visual-story-telling-artists-join-kw-urban-sketchers-to-sketch-moment-in-community-s-life/

If you feel like joining us for some sketching, you can join our facebook group or you can look at our blog to see upcoming events: http://kwurbansketchers.blogspot.ca/

Keep on creating and cheers!