Gilding & Japanning

For pet portraits, I predominantly use oil paints or Caran D’ache pastel pencils on pastelmat paper. The resulting texture is very smooth and velvety, which I think is perfect for drawing animals. Once completed, each drawing is sealed with a finish to protect the artwork over time to give a long lasting characterful drawing of our favourite four-legged friends.

I enjoy painting and drawing a wide variety of subjects in a realistic style.  I am intrigued by the detail in nature and how light works. I love to break the constraints of the two dimensional surface to create artworks that are as lifelike as possible. My goal for each portrait is to portray a convincing and realistic likeness with depth of personality and character.

Illustration is one of my favourite types of artform. Through lucid colours or whimsical line drawings, I strive for my illustrations to provide visual escapism. I mainly use watercolours, inks and pencils and for digital illustrations I mainly use Adobe Photoshop. As a child, I was fascinated with the drawings of E.H Shepherd, Arthur Rackham, Quentin Blake and Raymond Briggs who have all become my biggest inspirations in bringing fantastical stories to life. I have always believed that there is real magic that happens in bringing stories to life through illustration and it will continue to inspire us all - no matter our age!