'Captain Seadog' Is Ship-Shape

I finished my latest animal painting last week, 'Captain Seadog'. He's now fully rigged and ready to set sail and aim cannon against 'Captain Ratbeard'.

Captain Seadog

Watercolour & Gouache

24 x 31cm

I found this piece challenging because there is not a lot of fussy detail and lots of open spaces in the composition. I kept going back to N.C Wyeth's treasure island paintings as I worked trying to grasp his wonderful sense of design and colour. It might not be up to his lofty standards but at least I successfully framed the otter's head with a light sail behind a dark hat and cast shadow over the eyes.

Captain Seadog

Here is what I am working on at the moment:

This is Captain Seadog the navy captain sworn to guard the seas and coasts against Captain Ratbeard.

In other news I am now a father to a lovely little baby born called Arthur! He was born early morning Thursday 5th December and both him and mother are doing great. Hopefully that explains why I haven't posted much recently. For Arthur's first appearance on this blog I plan to do a small pencil portrait which I think will be much more appropriate than a photograph.