Pet Portraits Diploma Course (D5)

Melanie's Pet Portraits Students.....
Melanie is currently collecting photos of her students with their artwork. If you are a pet portrait Diploma Student and would love to have your photo on the london art colleges, just email your photos!

	The photo above is a Pet Portrait Diploma student Emily Griffith presenting a portrait of Mimi LaRue (Pug) to Tori Spelling (US Actress) and her husband Dean McDermott (Canadian Actor).  They taped this for their reality show "Tori and Dean Home Sweet Hollywood". The portrait was part of Emily's work for the Pet Portrait Diploma which Melanie assessed before Emily handed it over to Tori Spelling.

Duration
The expected duration of this course is approximately 1 year although the college allows students up to two years to complete their studies.

Overview
This course is suitable for all students. The following is an overview of some of the areas that are covered in the course.

Materials needed for the Pet Portrait Diploma

The course will give you a run through of the mediums and lists some of the brands of paints, pencils and paper with information on each that are available to purchase in your local art shops.

Pencils and Paper
For the first section of the course you will need some good quality drawing paper and a range of graphite pencils. I would suggest to to use a 2b, 6b and 8b on some good quality cartridge paper.

Coloured Pencils
The course then moves onto using coloured pencils and these can either be bought singularly, or in sets. There are many brands of coloured pencils to choose from and are all different. Some are more soft and waxy than others. If you are able to try them or purchases a variety singularly before hand this would be a great idea. The course gives a brief introduction to the main brands available which will help you in your decision. Use a smooth paper for the coloured pencils, try hot pressed watercolour paper, nothing too shiny. Again art shops provide a variety of papers for you to feel and try, why not test a few to see what you prefer to work with.

Pastels
Pastels can be purchased in sets and in colour ranges. If you are going to be drawing pets, I would recommend the brown tonal range. Again art shops have many varieties of pastel papers and all are suitable for using with pastels. If you are able to find velour paper this is worth trying. It's a great surface to work on.

Acrylic
Acrylic paints. If you have never used acrylic before I would purchase a few single tubes to start with. There is information about acrylic brands in the course and my advise would be read the course before you buy. You can paint acrylics on pretty much any surface from cardboard to newspaper! There is info about paper in the course too.

Oil
Many students ask me what colours i use for my pet portraits and I use the basic simple range of 8 colours. You should be able to get all the colours you need form this range. I recommend using waterbased oils for the course, and information about the brands and canvas are in the course itself. Purchase tubes individually and the colours i recommend are -

Black
White
Naples Yellow
Indian Red
Burnt Umber
French Ultra Marine
Yellow Ochre
Crimson

Optional Colours are below, these are handy when painting grass or specific breeds of dogs that are more vivid on tone and colour.
Cadmium Yellow
Cadmium Orange

Brushes
Brushes are a little more difficult to recommend as all brands use different sizes. So for instance my number 1 could be twice the size of the ones you are looking at. The best advice I can give is to keep your brushes in tip top condition, as working with an old brush with no spring or point can make your strokes look blunt, so a new brush regularly does help. Blocking in and background ones are fine to use over and over, I have two background ones I have had for over 10 years : )

We have secured student discount rates with a number of online art shops. Information provided on enrolment.

.....Finally,  I’ve loved this course and have recommended it to a number of friends.  I’m receiving commissions for my work which is something I never thought would be possible.  Can’t believe my 2 years has come to an end but I really can’t thank you enough.
Kind regards Val (Pet Portraits Diploma - D5)

Hi Melanie I would like to take this opportunity to say thank you for all your critique and help, i feel that i have come on a long way since the start of the course.
Regards Kim (Pet Portraits Diploma - D5)

......Thanks for being a great tutor Melanie and for teaching this course. I have learned a lot and it's really made me think about things like composition, harmony, form and lights and darks. I have also been able to experiment with other mediums, which I probably wouldn't have on my own. My drawing skills have definately improved since the start of the course. The first critique you gave me was about shading in the right direction under the chin of the dog to push it back. Since then I always try to think in my mind what the animals form is like and how the hair would fall around it.

Anyway, just wanted to let you know how much I've enjoyed the course. I have done a few commissions for family and have sold some paintings in a shop in my town. I'm thinking about advertising for commissions, but just head studies to begin with. I need to build up more skills and confidence before offering anything else. Thanks again and I look forward to hearing my final critique.

Emma (Pet Portraits Diploma - D5)

Hi Melanie,
Now I have completed all the exercises and can look back at everything I have learnt. Two years ago I could never have imagined I would produce these paintings. The course really motivated me to study art for myself and develop in my own way. I have studied many animal paintings in different styles and mediums, and followed several pet portraiture and wildlife artists (including you and Nick). I have studied on this course as I have never studied before. When I have not been doing my "day job", I have either been drawing, painting, reading about art, studying paintings or thinking about my own art and how to improve it. The course has helped me think of many ideas for future paintings, and I now look forward to moving on with these. It also helped me to put a good enough portfolio together to build a website. Good enough that I was featured in one of Helsinki Zoo's e-newsletters, which included links to my homepage plus 3 paintings I had done of their animals. The publicity from this was great.

Your feedback and encouragement has been invaluable over these two years and I cannot thank you enough for that. And I look forward to your critique of these final pieces.

Best wishes, Louise (Pet Portraits Diploma - D5)

Hello!
I would like to add my own testimonial to the course that I have just finished with Melanie Phillips and to say how much I enjoyed it.  Melanie is a very good and approachable tutor who always responded to my questions almost immediately. She offers lots of guidance and advice and takes time in doing so. She has given me the confidence to move forward with pet portraiture and if I ever achieve a fraction of her own abilities I would be thrilled!
The cartoon course I have just started is a different challenge altogether!
Best wishes
Sylvia Mann (Pet Portraits Diploma – D5)

I was not really sure how things would go in my Pet Portraits Course and waited with trepidation after sending in my first assignment. I was so thrilled with the feedback. Melanie was eloquent, precise and ecouraging, spotting snags I had overlooked. It was a great motivation to move on to the next section. Just wanted to say thank you and encourage anyone out there to send your work in. You will learn so much. Hopefully, I will be able to post some work in progress soon.
Chammi (Pet Portraits Diploma – D5)

Hi Melanie
Thank you for your critique today, I am really pleased with your comments they are going to be very helpful in the coming exercises. I can see exactly what you mean in relation to the eyes and eyebrow on the close-up and will keep this in mind.
Thank you again.
Regards Cheryl (Pet Portraits Diploma – D5)

Hi Melanie,
I just wanted to email to say thank you for your advice on the work for my assessment. All of your advice was really helpful and the video was useful to see where I can make improvements. Emma Hollands (Pet Portraits Diploma – D5)

Hi Melanie,
I just want to say thanks for the safe return of my pictures and also the assessment report CD. My husband said i was like a child on christmas morning when i was opening the parcel to retrieve the CD. Your comments about my work are so encouraging, i can't wait to get started on my next exercise.
Thanks again. Best wishes
Teresa. (Pet Portraits Diploma – D5)

Thank you for your comments on my drawings,from exercise 1. I knew there was something wrong with the breakfast things, as soon as i read your comments i could see what you meant. Isn't it strange how you can look at something so long you just don't see it! Again the uphill water in the jar i didn't see that either. It was interesting to hear your comments about the pepper as i thought i may have gone too dark. Thanks once again for all your comments – very useful. (Pet Portraits Diploma – D5)

Thank you for your previous letter. Your advice made sense upon re-examining the pictures and i have taken on board what you have said and tried to apply them to my newly done pictures.....I am enjoying the course, your comments and advice are greatly appreciated, thank you. (Pet Portraits Diploma – D5)

I was so glad when i found out about your pet portrait course, as it is exactly what i was looking for, I didn't believe i would find a distance learning course in it! (Pet Portraits Diploma – D5)

I owe you a big thank you for putting my pictures on the London Art College website. I cant believe how many friends have passed the message on to others. I have even got some work out of it!! I am now going to try building a simple website. Your tips in the course folder are very helpful to get me started as its totally new territory for me. Thank you again Melanie for all your help so far. I look forward to hearing from you soon. (Pet Portraits Diploma – D5)

Thanks for taking time to draw on my drawings in the pc......VERY HELPFUL!!! I have gone back and worked on them again some and it was extremely helpful that you not only wrote some suggestions, but the visual was a definite plus!!!!! (Pet Portraits Diploma – D5)

Thank you so much for the advice you offered following exercise 4. I am grateful for the time you took working on the painting of the puppies and the Westie drawing in Photoshop. Your observations and attached images were extremely useful.(Pet Portraits Diploma – D5)

I have thoroughly enjoyed completing this course and would like to take this opportunity to thank you for your support and guidance throughout this course, which has been invaluable to me. I feel my confidence has grown enormously over the last year. I had become stuck in a bit of a rut using only Gouache and the course presented the challenge of painting and drawing on a far larger scale than i would have ever contemplated in the passed, using mediums that i would never have previously considered. For that i am very grateful. My confidence is such now that i intend to set up a website and for the first time in my life i am actively showing my work to colleagues and strangers! I am also having some publicity material produced offering a commission service. Thank you once again.(Pet Portraits Diploma – D5)

Your course has been excellent and given me invaluable help, particularly in the need for discipline in my own work. I thank you again for your most useful and helpful letters. (Pet Portraits Diploma – D5)