It's been a while....again!

After settting up for the exhibition, which went really well, I've been having a little break. I have tried to re-boot my acrylic painting by attempting one of a lily, but it really was awful. It's easy to forget that most 'talents' need to practised to keep them in good condition. I'm back working on a portrait again now in soft pastels, and although I'm taking my time, it's going a lot better than the lily. I'm looking forward to finishing it and putting it up here for display sometime in the next week.

Tx

My Submissions to the Art Exhibition ready to be hung.

Jason Isaacs

I should be sleeping...

New Contact Card for Exhibition

Blog Update

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Flaming Hair

Three Quarter Glow

Soft pastels again. This time I used a paintbrush to blend the Sennelier, Unison and Derwent colours. I love the strength of colour in the Sennelier soft pastels. Lush.

Lady In Water - Finished

Did a couple more hours and this is now looking more like I wanted it to.

Alana - Portrait from Life Class

To be fair to Alana, she is a very attractive woman but had been up all night working as a midwife, so we she came into the class to pose, she was exhausted. This is a fairly good likeness of her looking knackered and trying to stay awake - which is never flattering... Sorry Alana! 

Portrait in Challenging Colours

I think the title says it all, really. Perhaps some more work to be done on this? I don't know. It's yet another new style...

Bold Yellow Girl

This has been a few hours work today and I've used just about every colour you wouldn't think of to attain the effect!

Loads of teeth - final image with original source photo

This piece is now finished... I think. Knowing me, I'll look at it again tomorrow morning and want to make more adjustments. I've really enjoyed this painting - I had no idea that I would be able to achieve such a nice effect from soft pastels!

Materials used are Derwent soft pastels pencils and blocks and Fabriano Tiziano pastel paper in blue.

Ear Study

Ears may be a bio-miracle, but they're fecking ugly. I honestly didn't realise how much I don't like them before! They are supposed to be the hardest thing to draw on a face, and 'they' aren't kidding. Flipping difficult, flipping ugly. I may only ever do portraits of people with long hair from now on!

Brunette in Pastels

Second pastel portrait of the day! This one is with a white paper background, so you can see the difference the background paper makes to the tone with the previous work.

My first portrait using pastels

I think this technique is called painting with pastels, as opposed to just doing an outline. I used Derwent pastels pens and sticks on black card. It's A3 sized, so I've had to drag out the camera again, and the colours aren't as bright as in reality. I quite enjoyed doing this. Easier than I thought it would be!

5 Minutes Studies of Alana's Eyes

Three studies of individual eyes - model, Alana.

Atchoo!

Just a quick one today. Bit of a sneeze due to incoming volcanic ash....

Olivia's Moustache!

This was a request for a portrait from a photograph, sent through this website. I've spent longer on this than any other picture and I've just sent her a copy. I hope she likes it!

Flower Girl

Finally decided to do some flowers and colour again. I've quite missed drawing things other than faces! This is pencil and the flowers are drawn with Derwent Inktense pinks, which are then blended and diluted with water on a fine detail sable brush.

All in perspective...

This one is a full A3 size, so I can't scan it. I photographed this in the garden just before I 'fixed' it. It's a combination of various H grade pencils, darkest B pencils and the coat and hat are in charcoal for deepest tone. I loved doing this one! Started it in my art class this morning and just continued until it was finished, somewhere near bed-time.

Girl with tongue out

This one has a really odd perspective in the original 2D image. Difficult.

Steve's friend, Pete.

Steve thought the hair would be a challenge - he was right!

Henna Tattoo

I loved the original 2D images of this picture and I fancied the challenge of doing more than just the head and shoulders. Wood has always appealed to me and I love the interplay of the lines in the wood and the pattern on her face.

Pretty Man in pencil

The Biggest Smile

I wanted to draw the biggest smile I could find, and this is it. I'm still drawing using pencil, but this and the previous picture have been blended with chamois leather, rather than with a blending stump or a trusty finger, and a combination of 4H and 9B pencils. Bit of an odd mix, but I think it's working for me!

Cheeky Smile Over Shoulder

This evening's drawing was a nice one to do - I like the cheeky smile! It's also a little androgynous - only the earring gives it away!

Expressive Eyes

Back to my favourite subject - Mr Mortensen. This time a portrait with very expressive eyes that I have tried to capture, along with a very difficult tilt of the head that I haven't managed to get quite right.

Man looking down

This sketch was done very quickly on delicate hand-made paper, so rubbing out or pressing too hard was not an option. I quite like how delicate it appears.

Mongolian Man

This couldn't have been more different to draw. I was actually quite frustrated by how simple the lines were! 

Einstein - finished

Einstein - Work In Progress

I started this one last night, and it's really good fun to draw. I work on an A3 sketching pad with the photo attached to the page. I draw lines on the photo showing the angles and measurements of the eyes,nose and ears and then draw corresponding lines on the paper that I use as guides to draw the approximate features. When I'm happy the features are about right, I rub out the lines and continue with the finer detail. I still make mistakes though (loads), so I work the pencil lightly to make it easier to correct.

Old Man's Profile

I loved doing this one. Don't know why! Perhaps because I didn't  use blending - just directional lines and shading.

Three Quarter Over-the-Shoulder Portrait

This was incredibly tricky. It looks more like the original than not, but the position of the head is odd in the source photo and it seems exaggerated in the drawing. I'm also getting a bit bored with the blending technique - time to be more precise with my hatching, I think.

Portrait over Shoulder

My nephew

I'm still twiddling with this. At this point I can't tell if it's getting any better.

Eye Study

Guido with attitude...

Sweeney Todd in pencil - finished

The delectable Mr Depp as Sweeney Todd.

Sweeney Todd Work In Progress

This kept me up till 1am! It's not finished yet, but it's shaping up now

Mean and moody John Thaw

Just played around with this from a photograph. It's very mean and moody. Pencil and blending stump with putty rubber to lift.

My brother

I tried to do a portrait of my brother, and managed a likeness, despite him being incapable of keeping still!

Self Portrait No.2

The incredibly cute Trent

Laura

I've always liked this cheeky picture of my friend, Laura, so I've tried to draw a stylised version.