Life drawing - Session 7

In anticipation of a forthcoming person portrait (to be added to this blog shortly) I used this session to become more confident at capturing the features and the application of layers to build tone and form. I also carried further the idea of minimising the pencil work and used the paint in layers to define edges.

As part of this I explored the principle that tone goes across boundaries (eg. the edge of the arm) and does not simply sit neatly where it is expected to be. The model looks rather stern but I'm pleased with the ideas it has given me. Roll on next week!

Life drawing - Session 6

This session was split into two long poses so that we painters could really get to work. My mission for today was to try and stretch my use of the watercolour paints. I'm wary of ending up just painting 'pretty wishywashy watercolours' (I tend to slip into safe mode if I don't constantly stretch myself) and really want to test out the range and dexterity of these paints. The results are rather technicolor(!) but a good exercise nonetheless.

Life drawing - Session 5

I decided to attempt to get away from the feeling of drawing an outline and colouring it in this week! I feel very pleased with this painting as I felt much more confident than previous weeks and made more decisions about what areas to concentrate on. As I knew time would tight again, I focused on working up the tone on the hands and face and I'm quite excited about the effect watercolour gives. Lots of future here I think. The model's jet-lagged state allowed for a very natural pose as she fought off waves of sleep!

Life drawing - Session 4

This week's session was frustrating as I seemed to be working at half speed! I used the warm-up sketches to experiment with my new watercolour brush pen (the brown sketches above) which I have to say shows some potential. The long pose could have done with being double the time as by the end of 40mins I'd got as far as blocking in the tone and was finally ready to start adding depth. Very frustrating!!

Christmas Card Sale!!

Launch of my new Christmas Card range via my facebook event ! 10 hand drawn cards for £10 inc P&P. What could be better?