Friday, 4 March 2011

Self Portrait

It's been a while since I did a self portrait, 12 months in fact.

Self Portrait
Watercolour and 6B pencil on Bockingford paper.
I sat down this evening wondereing if I could just roll off a quick painting, when a self portrait came to mind. The only stipulation that I gave myself, was that it must be a realatively quick study. I grabbed hold of a smallish watercolour pad and a thick 6B pencil and started work straight away. Very quick measurements were used in the drawing stage, and I thought that I would use the pencil to embellish the dark areas, so that I could keep the paintwork light. In fact, some of my work has looked very restrained of late, so now came another stipulation - it has to be loose and fresh as possible.

I used quite a bit of water on the paper, and dropped slightly darker colours into the fleshtones as I went along on this one. As the pencilwork was so dark, I didn't use much dark coloured paint at all.


Overall, I am really pleased with this - the likeness is not too bad, and it has opened up my work a lot - my tight work has been broken I think. The only downside of using the heavy lead pencil, was that the paint wouldn't cover the pencil lines at all much, just rolling off on globules, but hey, it doesn't matter does it? All good experience.

Time taken; 75 minutes.
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16 comments:

  1. AK4 March 2011 at 23:24

    Its great Frank.

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  2. Shirley Marshall5 March 2011 at 03:00

    Hi Frank ... I really like the effect of the pencil shading with the paint on top.
    The whole painting looks great - fresh and sparkly ... even the faraway glint in your eye. :)

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  3. Prabal5 March 2011 at 05:44

    Very nice.. And it also seems so different and refreshing..

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  4. John (JWJarts)5 March 2011 at 06:15

    This is great Frank. You've certainly achieved a fresh and loose result and to have done this in a little over an hour is quite remarkable. Excellent work.

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  5. _Frankb105 March 2011 at 06:53

    Thanks AK and Prabal, it's nice to be able to enjoy myself when painting this time.
    Alice - I do have a faraway look in my eye, and after studying the portrait, I can see why. My right eye is looking very slightly away, while my left is looking straight at the viewer. The difference in position is only very tiny, but it has an enormous effect on the gaze. Well spotted!
    Thanks John, I've done over forty portraits in the last 12 months, and I've got a lot faster at doing them, and more acurate too considering the early attempts looked nothing like the subject and I had to resort to tracing at times. Now I work by eye to hand and can quickly weigh up shapes and measurements in my head.

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  6. Pat6 March 2011 at 03:27

    Really like this Frank - you have managed the light and loose and fresh...
    .. and if that's a close representation, you look like the happy , inquisitive kind of chappy I'd love to see in the art group I attend! :)

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  7. Granny Annie6 March 2011 at 03:39

    Excellent Frank!

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  8. Sandra Busby6 March 2011 at 11:23

    Well, it looks to me as though you achieved everything you set out to achieve! It is loose and fresh - And why worry about the pencil marks? they are all part of the painting :0)

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  9. _Frankb106 March 2011 at 12:43

    This comment has been removed by the author.

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  10. _Frankb106 March 2011 at 12:46

    Thanks Pat, and Annie, I think I'm all those things Pat (including a chappy!). I think art groups are a brilliant way to meet others with the same interest.
    Sandra, you sound like Alwyn Crawshaw - he was always saying "it's all part of it" in his TV series a few years back.

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  11. Unknown7 March 2011 at 07:26

    Sorry for not being around much lately, Frank. Big things happening around here, so I've been incredibly busy. I have stopped in though and taken peeks at your work. LOVE the police car! This self-portrait is wonderful. I think you captured a great likeness in it. Think you'll change your avatar to this one? Ah, just noticed you did that on the facebook one already!

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  12. _Frankb107 March 2011 at 12:11

    Hi Raena, lovely to hear from you and know that you are peeking in at times (I know I have a few lurkers!). It's incredibly good fun to do a quickie like this occasionally and just let yourself go.
    I wanted to frame the police car, but I got it too close to the left edge of the paper, so composition wise, it looks out of the picture - don't know if I have the enthusiasm to do it all over again.

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  13. Barbra Joan8 March 2011 at 15:46

    Frank, well this looks more like you (I think) than on your bio.. I always say it takes a brave person to do a self portrait, I'm not that brave.. Excellent portrait. !!

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  14. _Frankb109 March 2011 at 05:09

    Thanks for the compliment Barbra, I don't think Sue intended the profile pic to necessarily look too much like me, especially after she digitaly enhanced it, but I like it all the same. Maybe you should try the self portrait, it's good fun and you may surprise yourself.

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  15. Jane11 April 2011 at 15:09

    That's a great portrait, I like your style.

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  16. _Frankb1012 April 2011 at 05:12

    Thanks Jane, I really must try and keep my work more simple.

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