On 22nd January we were delighted to have Niki Bell come to demonstrate her approach to animal portraits.

Niki began by explaining that she began with a drawing concentrating on the shapes that could be seen in the photograph and could best be demonstrated with circles to get the proportions and then lines to emphasise the shape and angles involved.

Once the main shape has been outlined then the detail can be added to give the correct shape of the head, ears and angle of the body.

Once Niki was happy with that all the marks that were no longer needed were rubbed out and the base colours put in.

Being watercolour this was a good point to have a break for coffee whilst the paint dried and the stronger colours were put in. It also gave members a chance to see the work close up and ask questions.

It was then just a process of adding darker colours to give life and definition to the work, which we all agreed was excellent. Niki did not put in any background and members did query this, but Niki explained that as it is a portrait a background would not add anything and could turn the painting into a landscape rather than a portrait.

Niki’s commentary whilst she was drawing and painting was most informative and also entertaining making a lovely evening, and I for one felt inspired to try her approach.   If you would like to see more of Niki’s work than do have a look at her website – nikibell.co.uk.