The Tree

A couple of years ago we visited Bradgate Park near Leicester for a day trip. It couldn't have been a nicer day weatherwise, as it was warm and sunny with lovely blue sky and a smattering of light fluffy clouds and those impressive, high stratus clouds which look as if they have been lightly dragged across the sky by some giant comb. The park is very open, scattered with trees and lots of bracken through which were wide grassy walkways. It was along one of these walkways that a certain tree took my eye. A very knobbly tree with a huge squat trunk and twisted branches. It was just magnificent to see it standing there on its own, sweltering in the heat of the sun and casting a huge shadow across the grassy heath.


I took a photo, which I have loosely tried to paint here. It's no great painting, but at least it's taken me away from portraiture for a spell and reminded me that I do have to put a lot more practice in when it comes to landscapes! The sky is OK and so is the tree trunk though I'm not so sure about the foliage. Oh, and will someone please tell me how to paint more realistic looking grass?


Oh well, a masterpiece will have to wait for another day I guess.

Acey Thompson

I think this is the last watercolour portrait I want to do for a while, as my other painting projects are falling way behind now. Anyway, this is Acey Thompson - my latest work for JK's portrait party on Flickr. I've done her as a WIP here.


In the first picture you can see that I've laid down the first wash for skin tones, eyes and lips. All the edges of this layer were softened, as this is a beautiful young lady and I wanted to keep the complexion fairly soft.
In the second picture, I've added another skin tone layer and extra darkening in the shaded area of the face. The lips to have been darken and shaped, as have the pupils and eyes.
In the last picture, it is all brought together by the addition of hair, eyebrows, eyelashes, as well as the dress. Like most people, I do find it difficult to know when to stop - there's nothing worse than fiddling with a painting, but examination of the photo and checking your work, there is always that little bit of detail that is begging to be attended to, but it has to be small at this stage, as there is a very real danger of overworking it.


I'm really pleased with the likeness on this one - I think my freehand drawing has come along in leaps and bounds over recent months, but I am not happy with the hair - I'm pretty useless with hair for some reason. Maybe one day I will crack it. You can see the source photo here:
Acey Thompson
If you want to comment on this work, say what you think and don't worry if it is criticism , as I do not offend so easily these days!

Painting for a Cause

Both my wife and my daughter-in-law will be celebrating a birthday this Sunday, and of course the same old question crops up "What on earth shall I buy for a present"! Well I managed to come up with something for my wife - eventually, and it came through the post this morning with just two days to go.
As for my daughter-in-law, I'd been thinking for some time before I thought "Why don't I do her a painting?". I mean, I've been doing quite a lot these past few months and my style and technique has improved a lot (I think?), so what shall I paint? A portrait of the two grandchildren would be nice, but I've got to get a reasonably good likeness, otherwise my offering would likely be tossed in the bin the moment my back is turned!

With only a few days to go, I set about the work. A couple of hours saw the drawings finished, and two or three more saw the paintings done. I was reasonably pleased with the likeness for Thomas, who's eyes I turned downwards a little as he was looking up in the photo, but William's proved more tricky. The lips, nose and eyes just didn't look right, so my best (and most honest) critic - my wife - helped me pinpoint the errors somewhat. While not being able to draw herself, she has a keen eye for detail and a remarkable knack of seeing where the lines are going wrong. Just for good measure, I took the painting along to art class for my tutor to look at too, and she came up with much the same advice as my wife.


With a little bit of 'lifting off' and trimming and shading here and there, the likeness improved somewhat, though some things still niggle me a little.


So that's it then, framed and all wrapped ready to go on Sunday. I just hopes she likes it, and it doesn't get consigned to the back of the cupboard or top shelf gathering dust!

A Lighthearted Break...

image: watercolour and pigment pen on cartridge paper

After the last session at evening class, I got really fed-up with painting, getting bogged down in the seriousness of so much tiny detail. I replied to Sandra's comment that I needed to do something a little more lighthearted and fun to bring me out of it, so I set my camera to multi shoot mode and did a few mug-shots pulling funny faces at the camera! Some of the resultant pics turned out highly amusing - well to me anyway, and I picked one to do a quick pen and wash sketch, and here is the result.


Taking around an hour to complete, I couldn't help but smile as my paintbrush (one large one only - you all know I hate fine detail) gently flitted across the paper, and boy did this do me good! My wife took one look at the finished result and said "That's terrible!"


What! Is my thinking wrong? I thought it was funny. Oh well, here it is for all to see.

image: me being silly. Original shots 640x480 b/w multi-shot mode, 16 chosen from 50

contrast boosted and grid put together with Paint Shop Pro.

Art Class Week #8/9

Please Miss, "I quit!"


Well, not the art classes, as I have already signed up to the autumn course, but this painting. I have spent three weeks at class and quite a number of hours at home on this one, as there is so much going on and so much detail, I find myself mixing paint for tiny little areas and messing about with small brushes. It's not that I don't find the painting interesting, it's just that I am so bored doing the same painting for so long.


There are students at the course who have been working on the same painting for the whole course or almost. I just don't know how they can do it! Admittedly, some have done some good work and one lady in particular has done lovely work on the same painting all these weeks, but using the tiniest of brushes to add minute specks of different colour to a painting is quite frankly beyond me. I have seen the odd painting that's been worked on for several weeks and it looks so overworked I want to scream!


Give me large brushes and a good sized piece of paper and let me finish the painting in a few hours please. Spending so much time on one painting is not good for my mind, heart or soul - I have so many ideas going around in my head that are just bursting to get out and onto the paper to mess around that much!


Our tutor tells me that she would rather I did one good painting over the ten weeks, than several mediocre ones done quickly. Well, the quick ones don't have to be mediocre, and can be good testing grounds for a masterpiece to come. I may come back to this painting in the future (if I'm desperate), but for now I have had it up-to-here and want to bury it behind all my wife's pairs of shoes at the back of the wardrobe!


So, summing up, it's been an experience - some bits are OK, others not, but case now closed, I'm off to regain my sanity!

A Straw Herring ...

I have to say that I am addicted to Julia Kay's Portrait Party on Flickr. Here, Dave Burwell (Straw Herring), seemed quit a challenge with all those whiskers everywhere.
In portrait watercolours, I usually start with a pencil sketch, then when I am satisfied that I have a reasonable likeness, pick out the main features with a very fine pigment pen, erase the pencil, then lastly shape the facial contours using the paint in layers. Mostly with women I soften the layer edges for a smooth complexion, but here in this male painting, thought it better to leave the edges fairly sharp for a more rugged appearance. But the one thing I have learned with pen outlining is to be very careful with the mouth, as lines around the lips look very unnatural.
Summing up, this is one painting that I feel happy with, though comparing it with the source photo, some things could have been done better, but I got immense pleasure from the whole exercise, which I guess is why we keep doing what we do!


Source photo



In the scanned image here, pen lines show up more than in the painting.

15 Minute Watercolour #2

A Mingling of the Media.


This is another of my watercolour exercises, where the only rule is "Try and do a watercolour direct to paper, without a preliminary pencil sketch in 15 minutes".


On the source photograph, it was the shapes and colours which really caught my eye and prompted me to think a little differently about how I could translate that onto paper. I really let myself go, not waiting for any of the colours to dry or  worry much about being too accurate. The paint, especially around the face, soon began to mingle an run back. This is about the freest I've ever been with watercolour, just getting the paint on the paper as quickly as possible!


I wasn't too sure about how people might react to this one, so when at art class, I showed it to my tutor first and she loved it, along with a couple of the students. This gave me the courage to post it here and on the Flickr website. It may not be everyone's cup-of-tea, but at least I've done something a little different for a change.


Source Photo:
Arxigene