Ken Bromley Cover Competition . . . Time to vote

TIME TO VOTE . . . You said it was your favourite painting so I entered it into the Ken Bromley cover competition. Well I'm thrilled to say I made the shortlist..
You can vote here for your three favourite paintings. 
http://www.artsupplies.co.uk/covercomp/

Please vote and share

This was painted from a photograph I took of my beautiful granddaughter Zahrah. She has gorgeous bundles of curls so I could play with all the twists and turns I saw in it. You don't always need to paint every strand but just enough to show the viewer what you are seeing. 

Some photos I took along the way....



The drawing ready and masking put into the eye. I don't always do this but as I wanted to spend time experimenting on other things I didn't want to loose concentration there resulting on no highlight. You can of course go back it with Acrylic, Goauche and many other products, but then we couldn't call it watercolour, could we? ..... it is also never the same effect as leaving the white of the paper. 

This is generally how I start most paintings and a style I have developed over the years, where by I paint with water. I don't was large areas as some artists do but instead draw with my brush as if it were a pencil, with clean water only.

 Time to add some paint with light washes at first.

Have added some colour to the eyes. I generally have to get most of the eyes done first, If they don't work then the portrait has no soul.

A close up of the eyes at this stage, still more to do but gives me enough to know that it's worth carrying on with.

Now time to add some more colour to the hair, but painting this section slowly and building it in different tone and colour. 

Here I called it done. I loved trying out different colours in the hair, using colour as tone in the depths of the curls. 




Please take time to vote in the competition, there are many amazing artists there to choose from, each with their own style.

Princess Zahrah ....

I can't believe it is so long since I last updated my blog, and just when I promised myself I would post more often. I have a number of things on my easels, and they tend to stay there until I am happy that I want to do no more to them. This portrait of my granddaughter is one of them, and as I started this some time ago you may have already seen this on my facebook pages. I'll still post it here as I know not everyone goes to Fb and i'm often asked to share how I paint portraits. The trouble is I get so engrossed in painting them I forget to stop and take photos of the different stages, so there are not too many photos of this one.

This is Princess Zahrah and came about as I was sorting and filing photos. I have so many of  my little princess, but just had to stop and have a go at this one... Not quite so orange looking in real life, or maybe it's just my monitor. 

This was the stage after the initial washes were done.

For some reason I find it a bit more difficult to get a likeness with the grandchildren. I wonder when we are painting someone so close to us we know them too well. It's not so much a problem with drawing them out, but when it comes to painting and choosing colours that's where I tend to lose it a little.  

I have decided as much as I can, to start using more of my own references. I'm so grateful to generous photographers for sharing photos, but I recently found I couldn't enter into a competition as the ref used wasn't my own.

Before I start I usually block out the background in photoshop so i'm not distracted by it, then I print it. I'm finding as I'm getting more experienced with drawing portraits I don't worry about the need of the ref to be the same size and can draw it in a different size if needed. I can never emphasize enough how important drawing practice is, I know how valuable I have found it to be and when I actually started to listen to others telling me so and doing it, I'm amazed how much i've improved.
 

Here is where it still sits. Some opinions are, that it is done, i'm not to sure on that yet. I know I still have to darken a few touches here and there, like the inner mouth area. Although it doesn't show to well in this photo, some of the areas in the hair are a touch darker and probably not quite so orangy. I do need to add some more wispy bits to the hair as well. It also need warming and more variation in the skin tones. I often see skin painted with the same colour but in different tints, you need to use colour as tone as well and that is what this is lacking at the moment.  It's also on hold at the moment as with Christmas almost here I have lots of other things on the list to finish. 

Here Comes Trouble in oils....cont.

I hadn't realised it was so long since I updated my blog. I've been really busy for the last few months with various projects, but I have been putting work on my FB Art page  completely forgetting to update here as well.

This is one I am continually working on while learning at the same time. We are very fortunate at our Art Club Ilford Art Society, where we have an amazing teacher Mark Charalambou, who has been with the societys for over 25 years. Mark trained at St. Martin's School of Art and is a successful professional painter in his own right. Mark gained his Post Graduate Art teacher's Certificate from the Institute of Education at the University of London. He tailors tuition to each individual Member due to our wide range in abilities.He has taught me so much over the past year, especially painting portraits in oils, which is why this painting continues to change.

    

   I've added more and different colours to her chin and lower face. This was to build on her character. Zahrah is so full of energy and trouble in a cute lovable way, and who doesn't stay clean for longer than 5 mins, far from a sweet little miss perfect  which she would have looked like had I painted lovely smooth skin. I just need to be careful not to over do this though. It was hard getting a decent photo of this so it is showing a little grainy.

     I still need to close the gap between the mouth and nose, i've aged her a bit too much here. The beauty of oils is of course that we can keep changing our work, having said that, it doesn't hold the same joy and unpredictability of painting with watercolours does, not for me anyway.

 

The likeness gets closer with each painting session, along with my own progress on mixing colours. I have found this so different to working in watercolour and a real learning curve, and one wich i’m really enjoying. 

The previous stages, started with a basic outline, then placing in some tones with various skin colours.

Here Comes Trouble.....

Some you win , Some you lose....

Not a total disaster as there is a lot I like about this one. I really should have paid more attention to the drawing as I've aged her a touch, but I was so eager to paint it.   When i took the photo I placed her in the top corner when editing, the composition of it worked so I went with it in the painting as well. I thought to have her hair trailing longer on the viewers left as well and was really pleased with how the colours worked, becoming softer as her curls tumbled down. .



So what was I not happy with?..well,  I wasn't too happy with the hair overall.  I lost concentration and hey presto mud happened :(. Having said that, I did learn so much from this, and no painting is ever a waste of time, it's just part of the Journey.

I have started another one, totally different colours this time as well. Will take it a step at a time on the hair as well.

Little Miss Innocent......

 Little Miss Innocent

Pure Watercolour

Arches 140lb

Approx
20x 14in

I loved this photo I took of my little granddaughter Zahrah. She has a permanent look of "Butter wouldn't melt" on her face, but like so many at her age, she is an absolute little darling, with a little devilish spirit. She usually checks to see if you are watching her before attempting to touch something she shouldn't, which was when I captured her with my camera. Such a sweet innocence.

This was started a while ago but have only just had the chance to finish it, and was also the same photo I  used  for the demonstration I gave at my recent solo exhibition in the Kington Gallery. 

I have really fallen in love with painting portraits, but find I now feel that need to express more in my work, something I believe all artists go through and something I don't believe can be taught, although can be inspired.  I believe as artists we have to find our own way there through painting and experimenting. I wanted to play with colour, the colour I see in subjects that isn't always evident in that first glance, or is it perhaps just a case of getting braver, as we all err on the side of caution when we first start out. I find that as i'm progressing i'm instinctively pick up the colours and placing them very quickly, and could almost say without too much thought, or perhaps again it's just that I have more experience now. For me this usually ends up with a more saftisfying painting.

It seems so difficult at this time of year with the bad light, getting my work photographed properly. It has a touch  more colour in the face, but as often found with transparent watercolours, it's sometimes hard to capture that other than to see it in real life. You can click on the picture to see it larger  where I find it looks better than the smaller version.

Nannies' Little Sweetheart....

Nannie's Little Sweetheart......

A little girl,
Born today,
15th August 2009 at 5.55am
to my Son kevin & wife Kay.


Ps Frame thanks to Lileya from Devianart