I am a part-time Coloured Pencil Artist originally from the UK but have lived in South Africa since 1976 – I started drawing in coloured pencil in January 2023. I enjoy the challenge of drawing new subjects. I switch between drawing African & British wildlife including birds but also more recently try my hand at pet portraits. I started my creative journey by joining the Bonny Snowdon Academy – a very talented UK based artist who offers on-line tutorials around the world. I really think she could teach anyone to draw using the coloured pencil medium. She really has re-ignited my passion for Art which had been lying dormant since my school years whilst following a more academic career as an accountant.

My favourite surface to draw on is drafting film. This does produce a glossy finish that may not be everyone’s cup of tea but I like the photo-realism achievable with this paper. I do occasionally use pastelmat which is a more of a sandpaper finish and has an almost chalky finish. The chocolate labrador pup below (a Bonny Snowdon tutorial adapted slightly to represent my own choc lab pup that we lost sadly at 15 months) is drawn on pastelmat as a comparison.

I use a variety of professional artist quality pencil brands: Caran D’Ache Luminance & Pablos, Faber-Castell Polychromos, Derwent Lightfast, Artists & Drawing pencils and Prismacolor by PREMIER. The different brands are either oil or wax based pencils and the majority of these higher grade pencils normally have high lightfast ratings (meaning colours will last longer/not fade if artwork cared for correctly – i.e. not in direct sunlight etc.).

Below are a few of my earliest drawings from when I started in 2023.