The casual portrait group I go to more-or-less weekly is quite popular, and unless you get there very early, chances are good that the only seats left will be on the outer edges – but happily, I really like drawing an interesting profile! 2 hours or so on the Surface Pro, using Autodesk Sketch. And, so bold, I even tried a little colour this time around.
I’ve never really tried watercolours, maybe because I’ve always vaguely assumed it would be hard to get beyond corny seascapes. However, this weekend I signed up for a two day watercolour portrait course at the Hutt Art Society. Yesterday was all about colouring in little boxes and getting control of the paint – today was putting into practice what we learned. Now, I can see all the bits I did wrong (argh, those shadows), and I still think watercolour is a weirdly backwards process painting wise, but the weekend was definitely the fun-stretch-your-brain kind of hard work.
Nb: my choice of style may have been somewhat influenced by the “Picture of Dorian Gray” (as read by Stephen Fry) I listened to recently. I will leave it a few days, and then go back and add proper wrinkles and enhance the sneer. If it’s not going to be pretty it should be really not pretty.
Not nearly finished, but well underway- Presenting Miss Fish. Based on this lovely tintype photo from the 1880s. The tiny original is, in the manner of its time, Photoshopped, with the eyes retouched, and colour added to her cheeks and earrings. This one, painted using my trusty Wacom Intuos 4.
So, today, starting the process for a painting, with some charcoal studies. This one resisted my attempts at likeness to the original model, and went a bit 1950’s Duke of Edinburghyish.
Sometimes, you’ve just got to go where the picture wants to go.
More inky scribbles, and more trying to figure out how wrinkles work.
Blue, black and red ink with a dip pen, A3.
Pen and ink, with a dip pen … I always forget how much I enjoy using the stuff, and then I remember again and fritter away an afternoon in scribbly lines.
Norman, pen & ink, A3
Me, painting with actual wet paint rather than pixels. I suspect I won’t know when I’ve gone far enough until I’ve gone too far.
