Baby Boy

Watercolour on Paper.

A small commission for a friend. Fun to do. Waiting for a verdict before I decide on a background. I find watercolour quite frightening as it feels as if I have little to no control over this medium. As a result I am not as experimental as I would like to be. Terrified of creating a disaster. Would love to be much splashier. Of course not having the environment to splash around in either doesn't help me to be freer with the paint.

Self-portrait exploration

pencil on paper

The self portrait is an exercise that so many artists seem to undertake and much as has been written about the self-portrait. It is said of good portraits that they speak about the sitter in some way. I read recently that there is a bond between artist and his subject yet in many instances they have only just met and at best the artist will only know the person superficially. Yet with the self-portrait, the artist is depicting the one person that he/she knows above all others.

I seem to have spent an excessive amount of time staring at myself in the mirror over the last week. There have been moments when I have been reduced to giggles over features that have been the subject of family legend to moments of wondering whether it would be possible to have other parts of my face surgically altered. Mainly this has been no more than an exercise in drawing from life. Not perfect - more practice required!

I paint self-portraits because I am so often alone, because I am the person I know best. Frida Kahlo

Jeanette in Watercolour

My second try at Jeanette in watercolour (the first while I was happy with the my application of paint was not quite right proportionally) - I am a total novice with this medium and find its unpredictablity both delightful and confounding at the same time. This is only my third portrait in watercolour (the first is here) if you include my first attempt on this particular one and I'm quite pleased with how I am getting on with the medium.

I'd love to have a go at pours as mentioned by Billie Crain and demonstrated by Nick Simmons. One thing that really appeals to me about this kind of use of the medium is the freedom and dynamic quality to painting. I find myself leaning more and more to a more expressionistic way of painting.

Happy to say that I sold "Strawberry Cheesecake" this week. Interesting that I had just had some notecards printed and was showing them to a colleague and she bought the painting from seeing it on a notecard. A marketing technique?

Doodling through Recovery

Doodling, nothing serious. Been out for the count in a drug induced stupor for over a week. Trying not to overdo it and set back shoulder recovery.

Rose

Graphite on paper

I belong to the same portrait group as Jeanette Jobson and she has recently posted her version of Rose. This is mine - I need to tweak the face a little and work on the hand. Bad photo!

Alexis

Today I wanted to experiment - not really sure what I am doing when it comes to watercolour. I know the background isn't quite the way I want it but will wait until it has completly dried before I decide if i will continue deepening the background. I'd really like to have puddles of colour overlapping the hair but I am a little cowardly about throwing the paint around. Also wonder how much more I can push the tonal values in the face.

Sketchbook

From my sketchbook.

Not enough time for anything else today - up to my ears in Christmas cookies. Why do I let myself get distracted with things like that? And tomorrow I wont be home until later as there is a Christmas get together that I could really do without. But then FREEDOM and 11 days off - woohooo paintbrushes, here I come! I'm making a list of things I am going to do during that time

1. Work on the chair
2. Do some pastels
3. Daily paintings
4. Plein air

Leon

I think that I have finished this commissioned portrait. As usual impossible task of photographing graphite work and getting the paper to look white even in monochrome. I will try and get a better photo of this.


Quick pastel - really liked the way the light was spilling round the edge of the canvases leaning up agains the window.

Taking the plunge today and putting the chair back onto my easel - figuratively as I only have a lightweight easel here and it wont take a canvas this large. This is where I left off. I admit to a feeling of trepidation at getting back to this piece but I feel a little more confident about putting the paint on the canvas and I am sure Michael will pull me up short the minute I put a brush wrong!

Cleared out my "studio" space this morning and now just need to find a way to set up a good still life area as there is a lot of light in this space from large windows on two wall

"The Second Bite" and Portrait Swap

I ate the first bite before I even noticed it had found its way into my mouth! Had to hold back so I could get the second bite painted! Had to move into bigger format as I have run out of 8" x 5" canvases - can't remember what size this is but its a little larger. I have a lot of unstretched canvas and I have been thinking about getting some boards cut and then stretching the canvas over the boards as a way to be able to go on painting until my ordered canvases arrive. I remember someone sent me instructions on how to do that but I can't remember where I put them. Then again someone gave me the name of a store that might, just might, have canvases for sale - hoping to get there this week to take a look.

I've been taking part in the portrait swap on WetCanvas and decided to try out a different medium. This is charcoal on Rives. Was pleased that it came out looking like my victim but is not quite how I had imagined the final result. Need some practice with charcoal portraits.