Nicky Jones  -  Animal Artist / Wildlife Artist / Botanical Artist

Covering a wide range of subjects including Animal Art, Pet Portraiture, Pet Art, Animal

Portraits, Animal Paintings, Wildlife Paintings, Wildlife Art, Nature Art, Bird Art,

Miniature Art, Botanical Art, Floral Paintings

Producing Your Perfect Pet Art

As an animal artist, my particular skill for working in minute detail lends itself well to pet art and animal portraits.  Whether you decide on a miniature or a larger sized portrait I take great pride in the fine brush work in each painting, incorporating fine hairs, whiskers, bridle, collar, etc, as you can see from the images below.  For more sizes and prices visit the Pricing and Ordering page.

(View a selection of finished portraits with their original photographs)

Once I have initially sketched my subject, I start adding a colour wash.  I will then start painting the eyes in more detail.  I love to spend as much time on the eyes as possible – they capture the real essence and character of the animal I am painting, and I try to reflect this in my portraits.  I feel this is the first and most important stage in the creation of a portrait.  All other details are then painted in and the colour is built up gradually using tiny brush strokes.  Throughout this process I use magnifiers to help me extract every little detail.  The finished artwork has a smooth finish, similar to watercolour.

Bailey's Portrait - An example of work in progress

Place the cursor over each image for a description of the painting process

(You can  view Bailey's finished pet art portrait in Dog Gallery I and in Before and After Examples)

The Materials I Use

Each portrait is meticulously painted using artists' quality Liquitex Soft Body Acrylic paints.  Most of my pet art portraits, animal art and wildlife paintings are painted on off-white smooth or textured acid free mount board, but occasionally I use acrylic paper and coloured card.  I like to use raw silk for my Miniature portraits and paperweights, which is a buff/beige colour, and the soft body acrylics work really well on the silk.  I use a mixture of medium to very fine watercolour brushes, my favourite sizes being 000 and 0000.  Some of my botanical illustrations are in watercolour on stretched watercolour paper, and I have also used acrylic and coloured pencil for my botanical paintings.

Photographs

In order to produce your perfect pet art portrait, I need to start with a selection of good photographs of the subject to be painted.  They should be clear and in focus, and the image of the subject should be as large as possible within the frame of the photo, showing accurate details, such as colouring of fur/eyes, favourite pose etc, plus any other distinguishing features.  Some details can be added, omitted or altered as required, such as collars, bridles, background etc.

Please be aware that the detail and quality of the finished portrait will very much depend on the clarity of the original photographs, and although I use magnifiers with my work, if photographs are blurred or in shadow, or the image is very small, then a certain amount of guesswork will be required to complete the artwork.  Please refer to my Photographic Tips  page for more information.  All your photographs will be returned safely to you with your completed portrait.

© Copyright Nicky Jones, Pet Portrait and Animal Artist 1996-2012.  All artwork on this site is protected by copyright law

and may not be copied, downloaded or used without permission from the artist.  All rights reserved worldwide.

57 Selwyn Crescent, Radley, Oxon, UK   Tel (01235) 529895

nicky@faithfulfriendsportraits.co.uk