Multi-head portrait commission

Ooof - 20 heads in one portrait! What a challenge. Great fun to do though, and the end result is very pleasing. The more I do with watercolours the more I love them!

Life drawing - Session 12

After two weeks off, I was worried I'd be rusty but happily this proved not to be the case! The warm-up sketches were great fun. I continued the theme of painting the shadows rather than the outline and got to work with wet on wet, using the paint straight from the tube.

The final piece was a lovely position. It is pretty apparent that I got more confident as I worked down the body. I'm really enjoying this new method, lots more to learn I think!

Portrait Commission

Post-humous portrait of Derek Inman for his wife and children. This portrait was very hard to do as it was just so sad looking at all the photos of someone who must have been a very loveable chap. Hopefully it will serve as a positive reminder for the family of his presence in their lives.

Life drawing - Session 9

FINALLY I've managed to paint properly! This week I dispensed with the pencil entirely and simply started by blocking in areas of shadow and worked from there. This has created a more sculpted image which isn't hampered by stray lines negatively impacting on her form. Really felt a shift from being a drawer (technical term!) who uses paints to being a painter. Hurrah, roll on next week!

Life drawing - Session 8

I went armed with ideas taken from a couple of modern russian figure painters and I must say it made a tremendous difference. Really gave me the confidence to step away from giving things an outline. The changes of colour and tone are quite sufficient to show the edge of the figure. The area by the hip really demonstrates my newfound confidence.

Typically I could have done with another hour on this painting but the technique is there, which is a fabulous break-through. Hurrah!

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.