Diploma in Pet Portraiture

Course overview
This is an intensive course in learning to draw and paint all types of pets.
 
We open the course with a comprehensive chapter presenting information and advice on various mediums and the materials you may need to complete the course. We then move on to some basic drawing skills in graphite pencil to ensure that you understand the basics before delving into the more complicated subjects of drawing and painting animals and pets.
 
An introduction is given to each medium and we illustrate various techniques, plus an example of a pet drawn or painted in that medium. We then deal with animals in detail, looking at specific areas such as eyes, nose, tongues, collars and reigns in a variety of media. We also deal with problematic subjects like, black or white dogs, dealing with long and short fur and direction of fur.
 
This leads to composition - adding two or more animals into a painting and creating backgrounds and landscapes behind your pets. This sections also deals with how the use of a computer can help you in the layout and design of your work.The course then provides an in depth look into a selection of steps by steps of how to portray various breeds of dogs, cats and horses in a variety of mediums.
 
The final section of the course focuses on starting up your own business, how to sell your work, accepting commissions and how to make your own website just to name a few. There are many practice exercises throughout the course which we trust you will complete. Once you have worked though each section and are familiar with all of the aspects of learning to portray animals and have completed the practice exercises, the final section gives you a set of four exercises to complete and send to your tutor.

This course is suitable for the complete beginner as well as intermediates as it gives a good grounding in drawing, which is essential before adding any colour to your work. For those of you who are more experienced and work through the drawing part at a faster pace, there are some harder more challenging exercises to work though.

Support
Melanie Phillips who wrote this carefully constructed course is also the Course Artist, available to give help and encouragement to students to ensure they get the maximum benefit from the course. Melanie is herself a published illustrator/ artist, qualified in Natural History Illustration and a very successful Pet Portrait artist with a well established reputation for excellence. The duration of this course is aproximatly 1 year.


Materials needed for the Pet Portrait Diploma Course.
The Mediums covered in the course are
Graphite Pencil
Coloured Pencil
Pastels
Acrylic
Oils
For the first section of the course you will need some good quality drawing paper and a range of graphite pencils. 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.
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 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. Its a great surface to work on.
Acrylic paints. If you have never used acrylic before i would purchase a few single tubes to start with. There is more 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.
Finally Oil paints. I recommend using waterbased oils for the course, and information about the brands and canvas are in the course itself. Purchase tubes individually.
We have secured student discount rates with a number of online artshops. Information provided on enrolment.