Horsing around...

Here is Lily, horses are more challenging to draw as they are usually wearing head gear!

But I think I did ok with this commission. Contact me for information about pet portraits ....

A Dog called Baxter!

Here are some WIP drawings on a characterful dog I just produced for a valentines present! The starting out I find difficult, as I only see part of the dog in front of me and I quickly want it to look right!

Then, once I have him all in, in this case I started with black, I can add in the other colours. I am working in coloured pencil here, and I make them very sharp with a blade! This is inportant for areas around the eyes and where fine hairs show up ...

Finally he is done, I can see from his eyes that he has collie in him!

I made a rat at the upwey pottery!

Getting ready for Artwey 2011 - opens 28th May!

Open Studio event, details here!

Mika .... Artwork finished ...

do you remember me making a start on this drawing?



its of this beautiful collie, Mika ...



well i finally found the groove and finished it ... if you want to see it in the flesh, you can visit it Here!



The girls worked along side me on the day I completed it ... 2 mikas, a traffic light, a strawberry, a row boat with oars and a flower - daisy is 4 years and home educated ...



three mikas, strawberry, raspberry, daisy flowers, matty is 4 years and home educated ...



i love their drawings. I love how they started with the amazing ears Mika has!

some news clippings to pootle through ...

a bit about kim's new shop, and a mention of thhe artwey events-to-come ...



and artwey articles run during the event - we had someting in the paper nearly every week ...




wow, here's a pic of steve in the paper!



inbetween lives, i was an adult ed tutor for a while, and did some photo album/scrapbooking workshops ... this is a fun picture ...



the first costumes i made were scooper sonic and scooper woman, used by weymouth and portland bc to remind people to clean up after their dogs ...




first i made the dog costume, and here was his launch ...

pigs, down at farmer P's, Dorchester Road ...

i have just finished these two pigs and popped them into farmer P's shop. She has some paintings by other artists in the shop too ...

finished the goats - all ready for exhibition on portland ...

come and see them at the beach hut studio ...

used stamps ...

i soaked off some old stamps and used them to make first class birthday cards ...

can you see how i have tweeked one of the pictures?

i hope the wonderful phil is happy with them now ...

from girl to lobster ....

some great photos of me in my own lobster costume (created over 2 years ago), taken by mike mccabe ...

its a bit big for me, i make a rather wrinkly lobster, but the true test was when i walked up and down the harbour and people said, oooh look at the lobster!

i had my picture taken a few times, and was even interviewed by some folks heading up the dorset seafood festival!

it WAS hot in there!

snippings ....

i recently managed to slip myself into the dorset echo magazine - i thought that a 6 foot mouse made in a weymouth home would be a good story!



i like this picture tho, that didnt make it into the magazine, they seem to go for the super-uber-wide angle pictures in their layouts ... Ruch Meech makes a lovely mouse doesn't she?



and here's a peep at the second issue of rat and mouse magazine, where i show you how to make a finger puppet mouse step by step ... i took all the photos while making at the same time :-)



here i am with Dorset For Singing, on the front row making mental notes for choir-blogging and generally giving cheek to Ed ...



and the choir performing at Preston Garden Party, i am inthe middle with my mouth open ... no comments please!



now, who is coming to hear us tonight? i am going to do two solos and have given my father-in-law permission to bring his camcorder ... usually i tell him to put it away!

giveaway ....

here are 10 cards printed with two kinds of artwork by me, and i promise to send them anywhere in the world, but not into outer space ...

if you want to enter a draw to win these, just let me know
1 - how you found the raggy rat blog ...
2 - do you come here regularly?
3 - whats your favourate thing to see on blogs that you regularly follow or visit?

hugs
now wish me luck
i am making one of the twin girls go cold turkey - i have taken her out of nappies this morning!

my girls and an old ratty gent ...

i made this puppet when i was 13 ... so hes aorund 24, cough ...
not bad for a vintage rat, is he? how daisy and matty love him, makes steve and i think we should get a pet again ... but not at the moment!
the shout in theback ground is mary-baby xxx

art revisited

something i produced before i was a cheeky blogger!