Saturday 10 October 2015

Andy Tolley

Andy Tolley is a Cambridgeshire artist who takes commissions for portraits and animals/family pets. He's not on twitter, but you can visit his Facebook account by clicking on any of the images he has kindly allowed me to use here.

As you'll see from the images, Andy has an enviable talent - particularly in his pencil work - and his studio, Andy Tolley Creations, already has a string of very happy customers who have unique pieces thanks to what he can do.

Let's start with the animal images:

 I'll start out with my favourite - which is an elephant with photo realistic qualities. 

This is a cheeky little fellow that Andy has captured. Andy is actually a talented photographer as well as an artist, so many of his wild life images come from fantastic shots that he has taken in wild life parks and then translated through his own hand drawn images.



 I love this image of a horse that Andy has done. He has captured that outline in the light so beautifully. 

Some of these images of dogs are 'the dogs'. So to speak.

I particularly like this one - but it's hard to choose a favourite from the canines because Andy does a fabulous job in capturing expressions and - quite importantly - eyes too. 

this piece (left) is actually a self portrait. Andy is quite magnificent.  


Superb German Shepherd dog. Personally I struggle with the texture of hair. I think Andy is showing off with this!





So we'll move on to a handful of portraits that I've selected from his gallery. All of these are just screen captured from his Facebook page (with permission of course) - his actual compositions ought to be seen in real life and in the dimensions that the artist intended.

This is a photo that Andy took a half finished pencil drawing of Arnold S... (nobody can spell his name?). 
 As you can see (right) Andy is fascinated with self portraits. When he's had a shave and back combs his body hair he looks a awful lot like Judy Garland.
Iconic 1960s image of the original super model and muse 'Twiggy'. I think this is fabulous. Genuinely brilliant - the light, the soft focus, the eyes, the use of shadow. First class. Take a bow. 
 Mohammed Ali. This is a man that I've drawn myself. Some call him the greatest of all time. I think he'd be more than happy with this.
Madonna. I'm not a fan of Madonna but this looks great. Using the same techniques that made the Twiggy image so outstanding. Great texture in the hair, interplay between light and dark, soft focus technique - it's all top draw.
 Elvis Presley the King of Rock and Roll.
A commissioned piece of an unnamed child. If you'd like an image of a child like this contact Andy through Facebook. 


















 Another commissioned piece here. Rumours that Andy glued the two infant children together to get the composition 'just right' are absolutely NOT true.
A photo realistic rendition of Kate Bush.



And below is the finished piece of the Arnold S... (whatever) that we began with. Thanks to Andy Tolley for allowing me to share his work on my blog. Click on any of the images to visit his Facebook Page.






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