Well some people class Sunday as the beginning of a new week I guess.
The reason I have started a new blog as I feel it is time to draw a line under the bad and focus on the positives. When you have anxiety and depression it can be all to easy to get dragged down further and further, but amongst all the bad I have really tried to find the good in it all and that’s is the rainbow watercolour side of Sarah’s Pet Portraits UK. Or as we are naming it, Jolly Splashes Art.
I have been pushing this quite a bit through my Facebook page and I will start focusing a bit more on my website too. Well as much as my WordPress knowledge will let me!
First I started with finalising my price list. The formatting has gone a bit squiffy, but I will edit it at some point. The main thing is I have a price list sorted at last! I shall be adding this to my price list page and I will alse be making a similar list for my pastels. I will have something to pin to the top of my Facebook page and to message people with, saving me typing the whole thing out again! These are unframed prices by the way. Need to add that!
What a beautiful day Monday has turned out to be. I have to say the Easter break started off pretty cold and not very bright, but today its gorgeous. My walk started off cold but it soon warmed up and became lovely, especially out of the breeze.
I came home and got cracking on Leo, Tottie and Rosie’s pet portrait. It is orivi g tricky with the flash and I am working hard not to be a slave to the reference.
I have packed up Finn’s portrait and hubby has very kindly offered to take it to the post office for me. Next on my job list is to get the cards and new prints ready for Mind which again hubby is going to take for me Wednesday, which is so helpful.
So that pretty much sums up my days efforts m, but check back for more blogs which will be started this week. Lots planned and pet portraits to get cracking with!
I am sitting up in the loft waiting for my ancient desktop and scanner to work their magic on my recwnt pet portraits. As it is a slow and boring job I thought I’d start adding to my blog. Saves a job later and when it’s the easter holidays and time is precious it makes sense to grab the moments when you have them!
I am currently scanning in Indy’s painting and Leo, Tottie and Rosie’s cat portrait.
I also have quite a few emails to reply to today. A few enquiries that have come in that need to be answered and I also need to source a large canvas for a potential double dog portrait in my Jolly Splashes style. So as you can see when I say it’s not all about painting pet portraits you can see why. I think about a third of my time today has been with a pastel in hand. If I get the go ahead to frame my current portraits that will end up being moat of tomorrow gone and then I might get a chance to get back to the others commissions I have!
Funnily enough, the scanning seems to be going quickly today. I don’t know whether that’s because I am actually doing something rather than waiting for it to finish. A bit like waiting for a kettle to boil. And it does a lot in this house!
I am up in the loft scanning again the triple cat portrait. The flash had washed out a tiny ginger patch on one of the cats, so my client asked me to add it in and she also wanted their white fur lightened a bit. I did that this afternoon and decided to get the scanning done and dusted today so hopefully I can avoid having to do it for the next few days! Yes I hate the job that much. But only because it is so slow. This afternoon it seems extra slow. It is stuck on 7 minutes to go for ages….. And I have run out of things to say in this blog post currently…… It’s going to be a long wait!
It’s OK, I did finally return from the loft. It took an age, but it’s done now. Hopefully she likes the changes as I don’t want to have to wait that long for my scanner to do its job again.
In other news today I got the prints and cards ready for delivery to Mind tomorrow and sketched out Bess’s portrait and also a horse ready for a bit of Jolly Splashes. My first horse portrait commission in this style. So I am a little nervous and excited at the same time! More to follow on this tomorrow!
I haven’t really started any new blogs this week apart from this one. I have mainly been trying to catch up on commissions. I have made quite good progress, but there are two with urgent deadlines that I will be sketching out tonight. I have finished the above horse portrait and I have started Bess’s dog portrait too. I am afraid they will not get a dedicated blog post. However, Bronte my next commission will be. A stunning golden retriever. I can’t wait to start him. The next 4 weeks are going to be very long hours trying to get myself back to some sort of sensible work load, so wish me luck. It does help that there is no nordic walking Easter Monday, although I feel an awful parent not doing much with the kids. I will have to squeeze something in with them, especially if the weather is nice.
I have uploaded the finished portrait of Leo, Tottie and Rosie, so if you have a second saunter over the their blog and take a peek. Bess, when finished I will pop up on this blog as well as the horse portrait. Anyway, I guess it’s back to it for now! Back tomorrow 🙂
Oh my word I am having an attack of the major guilts.. I haven’t caught up with my friend for weeks with everything going on, so today I went up for a cuppa and catch up that turned into. 4 hours in her garden. Oooops. Hey ho, everyone deserves a break right? I rarely get one and I think I deserve it after all the stress and long hours. Plus I don’t have a garden I chill in and the weather is fabulous, so why not take advantage of it! It might be gone in a few days! We all know what the English summer is like….. Enjoy everyone
Oh as a quick edit, here is Dollars portrait. I love this colour combination. What do you think of them?
I think this is the third time I have added to this blog, I forgot Bess’ dog portrait. I have scanned it and sent it to my client, but I haven’t heard back, but then I suspect most people are out enjoying themselves for the Easter break, unlike me, who is drowning in pet portraits. I wouldn’t have it any other way really, only to have to have been a little further ahead so I could have taken the kids out. However I will work my socks off to make sure I can take some time off with them over the May half term.
Here is Bess
I am waiting to hear back regarding Bess’ pet portrait, but as it is the Easter Break I am not expecting to hear yet. It is often a quiet weekend enquiry wise for pet painting commissions and probably even more so as the SERPs are still upside down half the time! However it is given me time to get my teeth in the commission list and I have made good progress on Bronte today. I will upload a progress shot and info over in his blog.
I went Nordic Walking today and it was stunning. I think it was the warmest day I have walked since I started which is only 6 months really. End of October I think I did my first walk with the group. We did a tour of Ide Hill to view the bluebells, but unfortunately there wasn’t much time to stop and take them in as I paced myself against David, one of the fittest men in the group and we did Yorks Hill. Now that hill killed me last time, and I am not going to lie, it wasn’t easy this time, however it did feel easier and that has spurred me on to do some hill reps of a really short sharp hill near me. Providing my foot isn’t too sore. I really want to get my fitness to a new level. I was definitely fitter just before Christmas and my injury has hampered it, but now I feel like I am slowly gaining it again, much to my delight. I want to beat my 11 minutes up Yorks Hill this year! By at least 2 minutes! Lets see if I can do it. What do you reckon?