News page of UK Artist Karen M Berisford

Busy few months with Commissions

22/1/2018

Christmas orders began coming in by September last year (2017) and I had little time to spend on anything else. I worked around 10 - 12 hours a day from mid October onwards and had to create a finely tuned schedule list for each day to ensure every portrait was completed for a specific date because there were a few overseas orders, some framed too and I had to ensure frames were received in plenty of time knowing framers tend to be extremely busy in the run up to Christmas too. I was hoping to have finished all my orders a week before I was due to travel to my old home town of Chesterfield so I could relax a bit but I was literally working late into the night before my journey the next morning!

Luckily everything worked out well in the end and my final portrait Star the Chow Chow, was literally collected by the Commissionee at the train station when I arrived in Chesterfield, he had travelled the 6 hours with me on bus, coach and then train in my suitcase! I received a lovely bunch of flowers from the lady for his painting and was pleased to see some lovely comments from recipients throughout Christmas day upon seeing the portrait of their much loved Pets. Click on any of the images to visit the progress pages.

Now all the Christmas Commissions are all complete and I've had a couple of weeks off to recharge, I am back in the studio working on new articles and 2018 Art Workshops for my Step by Step Art website, there's always so much to do behind the scenes. If you are looking to book your own bespoke Commission with me or are an Artist interested in articles, mini tutorials and possibly taking in a 1 Day Art Workshop with me, click on either of the links below to visit the page/website.

Here's hoping 2018 is a wonderful year for you!

Karen

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New Acrylic Artworks in progress

4/9/2017

It has been a while since I posted on my News page as it has been very busy here in the studio and I completed my final Chesterfield Art Workshop of this year in August and so I thought I would share some of my recent Acrylic paintings with you.

Acrylic paintings & Coloured pencil drawing on the shelves of Northumberland Artist Karen M Berisford

I currently have a list of works to start and others to finalise and more shelves have been put up in the studio to house all my portraits. I prefer to work between portraits as well as swapping mediums, as this works better for me and so there are currently 20 portraits in progress stages, more nearing completion than those in the early stages. Here are 3 of my recent works that I have not yet shared within the pages of my website:

Amethyst Sunbird on Red Hot Poker

Since finding the talented Scotch Macaskill's Reference photos website, I have been inspired to get back to my first love in Art which is Birds. Scotch is an amateur photographer who lives in South Africa and captures whatever photos of South African Wildlife that he can whilst on Safari with whatever camera he has to hand at the time.

I have chosen many reference images from his site and these paintings when complete, will be added to a new website purely depicting all my Wildlife Art, mostly Acrylic work but some Coloured pencil portraits too. I will keep you up to date with this new website but suspect it will be sometime next year when it is up and running as I have a lot of paintings to create yet! Here is one of the first Sunbirds I am working on. It is a male Amethyst feeding on a Red Hot Poker flower also known as a Torch Lily.

Hibiscus Flower

I have had the ideal composition photograph of a Red Hibiscus flower for many years and knew I would create it in Art at some point. I chose the Acrylics for such a subject as their vibrancy would be ideal for such a colourful subject.

I applied some tiny blobs of Molding Paste to areas where there were water droplets on the flower and as I already had a gold frame for this portrait, decided to change the colour of the flower to yellow, although the portrait is not yet finished and I may yet change my mind again! This is progress so far along side my little pots of pre-mixed colours that I use for this and a few other paintings I have on the go.

Haze the Black Labrador - Progress so far in the first 4 stages

As we have 4 dogs - 3 Labradors & a Springer Spaniel who love splashing around in the water when we take them out on walks, I wanted to do 4 separate portraits of each and as I enjoy the challenge of painting water, I picked out 4 of my favourite photos that we have captured of them over the years. I have already completed the Springer Spaniel Casper, and this is Haze, the daft Labrador of the bunch! The slideshow below shows current progress of this painting in 4 stages.

The background is always the first thing I work on and the main subject can then be finalised afterwards.

Thanks for viewing and I hope you found this post interesting,

Feel free to 'like' or leave us a comment below!

Have a lovely day, Karen :)

Latest progress on my Jaguar in Acrylics

12/2/2017

Early progress of a jaguar in Acrylics on Ampersand Gessobord

As this weekend has been very grey & drizzly I thought I would get to work on one of my Acrylic paintings sat on my 'progress' shelves here in the studio. This is a 12" x 16" painting of a stunning Jaguar that I photographed last year and knew it would make the perfect composition. The base of the canvas was painted with a wash of Burnt Sienna before starting the build up of the background and I then moved on

to the Jaguar itself, applying every single hair individually with a very fine brush. This fur layering process will probably take around 3 layers to get the right balance of tone and level of detail that I like to add into my work and I

Acrylic paints in a small porcelain palette over an Acrylic painting of a Jaguar in progress

working on an acrylic painting of a Jaguar

break up the intensity of the application by switching to different sections of the painting throughout, it also avoids paint waste as Acrylics can dry quickly so I ensure I place smaller amounts in the paint palette that will be used up before starting with a different range of tones for the next section. There is a lot of small detail on this painting and so it will take a good few hours to complete but I think you'll agree it is a beautiful subject!

Acrylic painting of a Jaguar on a 12

12" x 16" on a 3mm Gessobord - Original Art For Sale £415.00
and Giclee Prints From £45.00 (A4)

Christmas Commissions 2016 - Pets & Portraits

29/12/2016

This year I was extremely busy with Christmas Commissions - I had 5 to complete in the space of 6 weeks, normally a portrait can take 3 - 5 weeks each so it was a very busy time. All were completed and delivered out to the Commissionees and here are the portraits alongside information on each and the customer testimonials.

Springer Spaniel sat on grass in front of border plants

Buddy the Springer Spaniel - 11" x 14"

Buddy's portrait was created using 5 different photographs. The body taken from this photo, the head from another, the tail from a third, the background from a fourth and some of the background flowers from a fifth image, all cut and pasted together to create the mock up of the reference image. Doing this can throw a whole lot of problems into the mix as different images can have different lighting, luckily I was able to ensure the correct balance as I was provided with lots of great quality photos that i could pull detail from. As you would suspect the grass took the longest as each blade of grass was applied individually and this was done in 3 layers so individually repeated 3 times!

First stages of a Springer Spaniel sat on grass Acrylic painting

The base layer - Very messy but important

Acrylic painting of a Springer Spaniel sat on grass with beautiful border flowers in the background

The final completed painting

"I'm sitting looking at Buddy in pride of place on the wall, photo attached! It is absolutely lovely and it had the desired effect on Steve when he unwrapped - there were tears!! Everyone that has seen it has said how amazing it is with the amount of fine detail and so Buddy. If I manage to get a decent photo of Buddy next to it I will send it on! Thank you once again, it is lovely to have a painting of Buddy forever."
Esther

Find out more about the process of Buddy's painting and view more progress images

Springer Spaniel jumping through long grass on a sunny day photograph

Dudley the Springer Spaniel - 9" x 12" in Acrylics

This was a lovely composition but a tiny photo meaning that it pixelated when zooming in and the detail was lost in the face, especially around the eyes. The Commissionee loved the composition so much that I decided to see what I could do and asked if she could send some close up photos of Dudley taken in a less sunny environment and using all the photos together, I elaborated on the background/foreground somewhat and toned down the colouration on his head whilst still keeping the favoured stance. This was a challenge but I really loved the composition too and was happy with the final painting.

Base layers of a springer spaniel acrylic painting

Loose undertones preparing for the layering

Acrylic painting on Ampersand Gessobord of a Springer spaniel running through long grass in the sun

The final painting

"Just wanted to let you know that mum loves her portrait and we all cried our eyes out when we first saw it. What you've done is so special and we couldn't have asked for a better painting to remember him by. It captures his brilliant personality so well. I'll definitely be recommending you to my spaniel loving friends!
Picture of framed painting to follow soon!
Andrea xx."

Photo of a Japanese Akita looking at the camera

The Commissionee only had a few photos of Kita who they had recently lost and so I was limited to flash photos. This image was a nice pose but as flash distorts natural colour I had to guess the balance by using online photos as reference. The image was slightly blurry up close but I found that I was able to apply a lot of fine detail simply by being aware of the fur shortness and the final portrait was far more detailed than I thought possible due to the quality of the photo. The final painting was framed in a lovely black frame which helped Kita's portrait to stand out.

Base layers of an acrylic painting of a Japanese Akita dog

Japanese Akita acrylic painting highly detailed with green background

"Hi Karen, I just wanted you to know that I absolutely love my painting of Kita. Thank you so much, you have done the most amazing portrait of him. He was my best friend and my little boy and the painting has been hung in the living room so we can all admire him everyday! Thank you again xx"

Find out more about the process of Kita's painting and view more progress images

Diarmid E-mailed me a great photo of himself, his girlfriend Max and their little French Bulldog Kyla stood in front of the famous red phone box from the film 'Local Hero' when they visited Pennan in Aberdeenshire. As the phone box only covered half the background and the other half would add nothing to the composition it was decided to leave the background out completely and simply write 'Pennan' in the corner of the portrait. As mobile phone images tend to 'flatten' detail, the fineness of the Coloured pencils brought back the sharpness of detail and I really enjoyed creating this portrait - I always love a challenge!

Progress of a coloured pencil portrait of a couple and their french Bulldog

Working on the undertones and building up the tonal layers

Highly detailed Coloured pencil portrait of a man and his girlfriend with their French Bulldog

The final portrait treated with an application of UV fixative

"Hi Karen , Hope you had a lovely Christmas. Wanted to drop you a note to say that Max absolutely loved the portrait! She couldn't believe how well you'd captured the detail from the photo and was thrilled to pieces! We've already recommended you to friends and family and am sure we'll use your amazing skills again in the the future. Have a great New Year!! Diarmid"

Find out more about the process of Diarmid's portrait and view more progress images

Bearded Collies duo female and male photograph

This portrait was the last drawing I completed for Christmas and depicts 2 Bearded Collie's called Pyppa (L) & William (R) completed in Coloured pencils. I had taken some photos of them both a year earlier but as William (R) is a rather nervous little boy, I struggled to get any close ups of him. trying to distinguish between them after a year was a challenge too! I was provided with a few great quality photos which I could also use to add in their eyes a little more too.

progress of Bearded Collie's coloured pencil portrait

Coloured pencil portrait of Bearded collies on white paper

"Thank you so much for my beautiful portrait, you've really excelled yourself this time, its amazing!"

Find out more about the process of William & Pyppa's portrait and view more progress images

Latest Acrylic portrait - Japanese Akita 12" x 12"

23/12/2016

Kita

Photograph of a Japanese Akita laid down taken with flash

Acrylic painting of a Japanese Akita in a black frame and green background next to a christmas wreath

This year has been an extremely busy Christmas for Commissions and I suspect I ended up biting off more than I could chew, finally finishing the last commission of the year today and feeling emotionally shattered after early mornings and late nights creating some beautiful doggies and very special portraits for some lovely people. This is one of the Christmas commissions that I can show as it was given to the recipient early so Kita's Mum could choose the frame of the memorial portrait of her precious boy. Having created so many Pet portraits over the years I was able to work far more into the painting than was seen in the photograph as Kita's owners sadly had few photos of him and as Acrylic portraits offer extremely fine detail, every single hair had to be applied individually using a very thin brush to give the fine detail.

Painting the fur around the nose of an Acrylic painting of a Japanese Akita

fur detail in an acrylic painting of a Japanese Akita

Upon completion of the portrait I then applied 2 layers of satin varnish which was then framed in the 'Brockwell' moulding, packaged up and sent to his new home. Upon receipt Kita's mum sent me the following text:

"I just wanted you to know that I absolutely love my painting of Kita. You have done the most amazing portrait of him, he was my best friend and my little boy. I love him so much and the painting of him has been put up in the living room so we can all admire him everyday!!!
Thank you again" xx
Rachel

It is always special recieving such feedback and I am looking forward to hearing how my other portraits have gone down this Christmas, hoping I am able to bring a smile to the recipient's face and knowing I did a good job for them all. I will share each portrait on my blog once I've had a decent break and would like to offer this opportunity to wish you all a Merry Christmas & A Happy New Year!!

Springer Spaniel 'WILLOW' Latest Acrylic Commission

3/9/2016

I recently completed this stunning portrait of Willow the Springer Spaniel and her ball as a surprise Commission from a husband to his wife for their special 1 year wedding anniversary. The reference photograph was a brilliant composition to begin with and so I knew the painting would be great fun to do.

The final painting

Myself with the 9" x 12" 22mm portrait

My Acrylic paintings are created to offer vibrancy and wherever possible, texture and as the ball was at the forefront of the painting I mixed a moulding paste in with the paints to give the fluffy texture of a tennis ball. I also added texture into Willow's fur using the moulding paste too to add interest when viewing the painting at different angles.

Fine details up close

22mm Board with painted corners

Wall protectors applied for all unframed portraits

This portrait was created on a 22mm Gessobord so that it could be hung without a frame and the edges were also painted too. The painting was sealed with a few layers of Satin Varnish and 2 wall protector feet were added to the bottom corners on the back of the painting for added protection. The great thing about these 22mm board portraits are that you can choose at a later date to have a frame added if you prefer or keep them unframed for that contemporary feel. I really enjoyed creating this portrait and was pleased to hear Willow's Mum was pretty happy with her surprise when she received it too!

Karen, I was the lucky one to receive this beautiful painting. I can't tell you what a lovely gift it is, thank you so much for capturing Willow's character so well. I absolutely love it, it's beautiful and one to be treasured for many years to come.
Victoria D.M

FIND OUT MORE ABOUT THESE ACRYLIC PAINTINGS

LOOKING TO COMMISSION YOUR OWN PORTRAIT?

Recently completed Commissions of a Pusscat, Jack Russell/Pug & a Fawn Boxer Dog

15/8/2016

Murphie - Large Traditional Heart Memorial portrait

Murphie sadly passed away in December 2015 aged 20 years of age and her Mum was looking for something special as a memorial to Murphie and came across my Traditional Hearts portraits and got in touch. It is always a real challenge when it comes to black & white animals as you tend to find that a lot of definition is lost in photos as it is very difficult to strike a balance of these colours whilst still retaining detail however, through various layering of

Black and white shorthaired cat acrylic painting on a heart shaped sheet of MDF

Close up details of the yellow eyes of a black cat acrylic painting

Black and white shorthair acrylic painting being held by the Artist Karen M Berisford

paint colours including grey and brown tones added to the black fur and with greys added to the white fur I was able to create an equal balance of colour and detail to ensure perspectives were kept in check and the final portrait was as close a likeness to Murphie's photo as possible. Feedback from Murphie's Mum upon receipt told me that I had done a good job!

Acrylic painting of Murphie the british shorthair traditional heart in situ

Finally at home

"Murphie arrived home safe and sound this afternoon and what can I say. The photos were fantastic but she is even better now I can see her in "close up". I always knew it would be hard to lose Murphie after having her in my life for 20 years but I didn't fully appreciate just how big of a hole she would leave behind. Your painting has given me little bit of my girl back and I can't seem to tear my eyes away from it at the moment. I attach a photo so that you can see that she arrived unscathed and thank you again for everything. You made the process so easy from start to finish and you took good care of my girl and have created a truly fitting memorial to her and for that I am so grateful"

FIND OUT MORE ABOUT 'TRADITIONAL HEARTS' ACRYLIC PAINTINGS

Bailey - 10" x 12" Coloured pencil pet portrait

Bailey is the second portrait completed in Coloured pencils for his Mum after heartbreakingly losing both Bailey and Casey (the first portrait) in close succession of each other and was gifted both portraits by a good friend. Bailey was originally sat on a green stripey rug but I thought it would suit the portraits if they were both sat on the same wooden

flooring so that they would compliment each other once framed and hung next to each other.

" Bailey just arrived! Well, about 15 minutes of tape removal ago. We are so chuffed! Bailey was loved by all of us, but loves my husband best, he was over the moon! We are blessed by your talent!
I just love him! Thank you so much! xxxx"

FIND OUT MORE ABOUT COLOURED PENCIL COMMISSIONS

Obe - 11" x 14" Boxer Dog Acrylic painting

I was asked to create an Acrylic painting of Obie the Boxer dog as a surprise gift to a lady in the USA. The reference photo was a beautiful pose and of great quality and I was able to gather lots of detail from the reference image to create this special memorial painting of Obe.

All my Acrylic paintings are created using a mixture of professional paint colours and mediums which offer texture to the painting. The background texture was created using a palette knife and texture was limited on Obie himself except for a light layering of fur texture. Nearly 40 Facebook friends clubbed together to book this surprise portrait of Obe and it was lovely to hear how happy the recipient was upon receiving such a thoughtful gift from great friends!

"Hi Karen, Your painting brought tears to my eyes and a huge smile to my lips. Thank you! I love it. He's home and on my wall."

FIND OUT MORE ABOUT ACRYLIC PORTRAIT COMMISSIONS

Miss Molly - Acrylic painting of a Long haired Daschund

1/8/2016

I have had my eye on a stunning photograph of a Black long haired Daschund called Miss Molly taken by a lovely lady and Molly's Mum who lives in the USA, I asked if I could use the photo to recreate into an Acrylic painting and Molly's Mum said 'YES!' Here is the progress of Molly so far - an Acrylic painting always starts off looking rather messy whilst I lay down the rough base tones. Details are defined and refined as I go along creating finer details and applying washes where necessary.

In the Art studio of an acrylics painting of a Black long haired Daschund

After applying a wash, I begin by applying a loose base layer.

acrylic paints layering of a daschund pet portrait on gessobord

Further loose base layers applied to miss molly and the Cherry blossom flowers.

details of an acrylic painting of a black daschund dog on ampersand gessobord

After base layers, the next part is to refine these details ensuring perspectives are kept in check.

progress of an acrylic painting depicting a black long haired daschund wearing a pink flower neck bow and pink flower in her hair surrounded by cherry blossom

After further definition on molly and more work adding the Cherry Blossom, this is work so far

As you can see on the last photo, Molly has more finer details now but there is still much to do on the Cherry Blossoms in the background. If you wish to follow progress of this portrait, you can find the official page by clicking the link below:

View miss molly's progress page

Thinking of booking your own Acrylics Commission? Get in quick as the current Introductory prices are only available for a short time only, find out more on my ACRYLICS page or click any of the links below:

find out more about the commissions process

get a quote or book your acrylic bespoke commission here

what portrait sizes are available and how much will it cost?

hints and tips on how to capture the best photo for your portrait

New Acrylic paintings - Black Labrador & Long haired Daschund

12/6/2016

I have begun a couple of new Acrylic paintings to join my ever growing collection. After painting our Springer Spaniel swimming, having 2 Labradors also I wanted to create a trio of paintings of them and after thoroughly enjoying painting the water in Casper's painting, I decided that this would be the theme of the trio and so went off to Woodhorn's QEII park here in Northumberland to get some photographs of him. Haze is rather excitable and went off jumping in to the water on numerous occasions, which caused him to sprain his tail! poor boy! Luckily, it was ok after a few days and it did not bother him much, so I got a lovely, natural photograph of him enjoying his swim on a sunny Sunday! Here is progress so far of the rough base layers, this is also a 11" x 14" on Gessobord.

The 2nd painting is a 12" x 12" of a beautiful little Black Daschund called Miss Molly. She lives in the USA with her family and the stunning composition image had been posted by her Mom sometime last year and I fell in love with it straight away and asked if I would be able to use it for this painting, luckily her Mom was more than happy for me to use it and I got started. Molly is surrounded by Cherry Blossoms and so this painting is going to take a good few hours to lay down all the rough base layers before I even get to adding the fine details!! Both these paintings will have texture added in places applied with a palette knife to give the unique finish to every painting I do.

Traditional Hearts - new paintings completed

4/6/2016

traditional hearts paintings by Karen M Berisford depicting a black and white shorthaired cat, a white faced cockatiel and 2 white boxer dogs on MDF hearts

Here are 3 of my Traditional Hearts portraits completed. These Acrylic paintings are created on heart shaped MDF and contain so much fine detail on a small scale, they can take longer to produce than a painting twice it's size!

These are available in 3 sizes and priced as follows:

Small (4" x 3½") £45.00
Medium (5¾" x 5¼") £75.00
Large (8" x 7") (single) £110.00
" " " " (Double) £130.00

Each painting is created using a layering process on a ¾" thick heart shaped MDF board which is sourced from a reputable, FSC certified company and finished off with 2 layers of UVLS satin varnish which offers additional protection from UV light to ensure your painting is sufficiently protected.

These Traditional Heart portraits are a great price for giving as a gift to a loved one or even as remembrance plaques for those loved ones who have passed away as they can be created to stand or hang beside memento's of those we have loved & lost.

Take a look at the TRADITIONAL HEARTS page if you wish to find out more.

Click to find out more

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