Portrait drawing of ' Jerom', colored pencils 100x65cm

The finished piece 100x65 cm, colored pencils on paper.

Large portrait in grey colored pencils, 'Jerom' (100x65 cm)

...I'm working on a large picture of my youngest nephew, with grey colored pencils in various shades.
Size 100x65 cm.The outcome is 'softer' that it would have been with graphite, or just black pencil. I like it.

'Nadja', colored pencil drawing

This is a colored pencil drawing of Nadja. Nadja live at the animal shelter of Santorini, Greece.

She has one brown, and one blue eye. She is a mixed husky breed with a lovely personality.

This will be one of the drawings featured in the 2014 calendar I am making with original art pictures of Santorini shelter animals. All earnings will go to the shelter.

Theoni, colored pencil drawing

Theoni was a wonderful dog for me to draw, because she looks very much like a dog we used to have ourselves ...our dog Luka. We fell in in love with Luka in 1999 in Sougia, Crete (Greece) and she traveled home with us to The Netherlands by car at the end of our holiday. Luka was a much loved member of our family until she died from an unidentified illness in 2008.

This picture's Theoni lived in the streets of Santorini until she was brought to the Santorini animal shelter. She was one of the lucky dogs that found a home in Germany soon afterwards.

This drawing of Theoni will be featured in the 2014 calendar I am making. When it is ready, you will be able to place orders through my Facebook page www.facebook.com/SusanBrinkmannArt, and also here.
All earnings from sales will go to the Santorini shelter.

'Benjy' Colored pencil darwing for 2014 calendar

'Benjy'; another dog for the Santorini animl shelter 2014 calendar. Still in the making; all earnings will go to the shelter.

'Caida', colored pencil darwing for the calendar

Another drawing made with colored pencils, for the Sawa Santorini animal shelter 2014 calendar!
When completed, you will be able to order the calendar through my Facebook page www.facebook.com/SusanBrinkmannArt, and here! All earnings will go to the shelter!

'Bandit', colored pencil drawing

This colored pencil drawing is a picture of Bandit, who used to live in the animal shelter in Santorini, Greece. Bandit was lucky enough to find a home in Germany this summer, unlike alot of other Husky mixed breed dogs that still live at the shelter today.
I am making a 2014 calendar with drawings of the shelter dogs, which will be for sale though my Facebook page www.facebook.com/SusanBrinkmannArt. All earnings will go to the shelter.

Danae, colored pencil drawing 2 for calendar

This is going to be February girl in a calendar I'm putting together with drawings of the shelter animals on the island of Santorini, Greece.The calendar will be for sale (details will be made known online), and all earnings will go to Santorini Animal Welfare Association (SAWA).

This beautiful 7-year old German Shephard named Danae, now lives at the animal shelter in Santorini.
She once belonged to locals who owned a gas station, where she was kept permanently on a short chain, as a watch dog. After a few years the gas station went broke and the owners left the island. They simply left poor Danae behind, still on her chain. After a while she grew so thin that her collar just dropped off, and she started to roam the streets. Luckily the people that work at the shelter found her and she is now well looked after, but she still bears the scars from the treatment she used to receive, she is always a little wary and afraid of people. But Danae is a caring dog, and she tends to look after 'new' dogs at the shelter.

If only a patient and kind someone looking for a slightly mature dog would give her a home...

Calendar with drawings of Santorini stray animals (this is Irma - January)

My family has had (and still has) several former stray dogs from the Greek islands Santorini and Crete.
Such wonderful dogs! The shelters there are always full because too few of the local inhabitants spay and neuter their animals, and often they let them run free.
I wanted to help the people (mostly volunteers) who run the shelters, and I came up with the idea of designing a 2014 calendar with printed pictures of colored pencil drawings I am now making of animals that are currently in the Santorini shelter. This shelter is run by SAWA (Santorini Animal Welfare Association).

All money that is earned through selling the calendars, will go to the shelter to help the animals.

This is the first picture (January) of Irma, a pointer. Pointers and other hunting dogs are very popular with people who live on Santorini, but unfortunately they also abandon them frequently when they don't want, or need them anymore. A large number lives at the shelter. Irma is lucky enough to have found a home in the US in the near future, but there are many other dogs at the shelter, waiting for a loving home of their own.

Check out SAWA's Facebook page, for more information about what they do and the dogs that live at the shelter.

When ready, it will be possible to order the calendars online through my Facebook page, and I will also post the info here.

Portrait in black & white (100x65cm), stage 1

This time I've started working on a large black & white portrait (this is stage 1). Usually, I use a regular pencil or graphite when I work in black & white, but this time I want to use black, white and several grey colored pencils to see if I can create a 'softer' effect.
I hope to have it ready before the end of June, because I would like to enter it for the Derwent Art Prize 2013 competition (closing date July 1st), together with the color portrait I drew recently.

The final touches...finished!

Finished! This portrait of my youngest niece Vera was made with Caran D'Ache Supracoor Soft pencils, Faber Castell Polychromos and Derwent Coloursoft. The size is 100 x 65 cm.

Colored pencil drawing of Vera, stage 3

Slowly getting there! Besides the shawl and the hair, there is still quite some shading to do in the face, or it  will get to look too pale beside the vivid reds surrounding it.
I will scan the finalized drawing (in about 12 parts, then I will paste them together again in Adobe Photoshop) so the quality will be a lot better than in these photographs.
I hope to finish this picture sometime next week.

Colored pencil portrait (100x65cm), stage 2

...stage 2; a large size for a pencil drawing (see cup at the bottom of the picture). Great fun!
Today, I got quite a bit of work done. I hope to have the picture finished within 2 weeks from now.
I intend to enter it for the Derwent Art prize contest 2013 www.derwent-artprize.com

Colored pencil portrait (100x65 cm), stage 1

The largest picture I have made with colored pencils until now! And it is such fun! I hope to make even larger drawings in the future.
This lovely girl is my youngest niece. Besides being a beautiful girl, she has a lovely personality; I hope it shines through enough to do her justice in my drawing.

Snuit

Our beloved dog Snuit died last Thursday. We found her, and her brothers and sisters, as puppies under a bush in Perissa, Santorini  (Greece) in 2001. One of her sisters still lives in Alphen (NL).
We miss Snuit very much. But drawing this picture made me feel a little closer to her.

Portrait drawing in pencil, 24 x 30cm

A very special 10-year old boy asked me to draw a portrait of his great-grandmother, who died recently.
I don't think it occurred to him that I usually charge money for commissioned portraits, and after hearing why he wanted it, I didn't bring the subject up...He wants to give the portrait to his grandmother "so that she won't be so sad anymore about losing her mother".
I'm going to show him the result this afternoon, and I really hope he likes it. Then we'll go out to buy a frame together.

'Deer', pencil & graphite pencil, 42x59cm

'Deer'; I just finished this drawing. It was fun drawing this animal that looks both strong and sensitive.
It will probably become part of my 'Never ending' series (see below for more drawings in this series).

'Generations'

This drawing (59 x 84 cm) was made with graphite pencils and is part of the 'Never ending' series.
It consists of two parts, like the other 'Never ending' pictures. Each picture is connected to the picture on ts left or right. The reason for this is, because the series is about the eternal circle of life and the balance in nature.

Boy, pencil 3B

This pencil drawing is size 40x60 cm and to do justice to it, it needs to be viewed in a large size. So please click on the image!
It is always a bit of a problem to scan a portrait in 6 parts, and then paste them together in Photoshop. There are always slight deviations, which are most visible in a human portrait. Especially if you know the subject :-)

'Oia', Grafstone graphite crayons 6B

'Oia', Caran D'Ache Grafstone crayons 6B and pencil 3B.
Size 40 x 60cm.

For sale; € 900,-  excl. 6% VAT and including international shipping.

The next picture will be a portrait. Almost done!

Dogs at Perissa beach

Colored pencils on paper, about 30x60 cm.

These stray dogs were at the beach of Perissa, Santorini, in the summer of 2011.

Never ending series, part 2 (not complete yet...)

This picture needs a third picture on the right side....I'm not sure yet what it's going to be.....maybe a seahorse or a dolphin, or a turtle...It is part 2 of the 'never ending' series about the balance of survival and simply living together in nature. Scroll down to the next post for part 1 of the series.
Conté on paper 59 x 84 cm (current size).