A Students Story…..

Ruth Mann completed the London Art College Pet Portrait Diploma in 2009 and has kindly allowed us to showcase a few of her pieces and she has written some accompanying text to go along with them. I hope that you all find it inspiring.

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I re-discovered art late in 2007 after taking voluntary early retirement. I soon got the bug and realised that I liked drawing animals, practicing on mine and my family’s dogs. Then I found the London Art College and saw that there was a Pet Portrait diploma so decided to take it. It took me over a year to complete and I was over the moon to receive a distinction. I have learned so much in that time and now am quite confident in portraying a wide variety of animals.

My favourite medium by a long way is soft pastels and I was leaning this way before starting the course. However, the course encourages students to use different media too, graphite, coloured pencil, acrylics and oils and it was very good for me to try these out. Although I love graphite and pastels I now have small sets of the others and am trying to improve my skills with them too.

I am also trying out different subjects….people portraits, landscape, flowers and even still life. I am trying to develop my own style and have started doing regular sketches, mainly in pastel, which has really helped my freehand drawing skills. The more I learn though the more I realise how much I still don’t know! Nevertheless I am hoping to start exhibiting and maybe selling some of my work soon. I find it a very exciting journey and though I sometimes feel discouraged when something doesn’t turn out right I try to use this in a positive way to help me continue to improve.

I have also learned not to compare my work unfavourably with that of others. All art is individual. We can learn by observing and even copying other people’s work but ultimately our art is our own unique take on a subject.