The glance

Here's my latest effort for the portrait paintalong on the Painting Friends forum. I especially enjoyed the colour combinations in this one, purples with orangey tones. It's a bit more subtle than the in-your-face man from Halong, anyway!

The original reference photo was by lisilk, and came from the WetCanvas reference image library.

I'm pleased to say that this image was featured on the RedBubble homepage - well chuffed!

Watercolour, 8" by 10"

There was an old man from Halong

Here's another portrait from the 'portrait paintalong' on the Painting Friends forum. This one is a quarter sheet (a bit bigger than my usual 8" by 10"), and it's on Arches Rough paper, a surface I don't often use (found this piece lurking at the bottom of the drawer, it must have been there forever). Thought it might be ok to use for a nice craggy subject such as this chap, and I really enjoyed painting it. Best viewed from a short distance away, as with an awful lot of my paintings ;)

Watercolour 11" by 15".

Ref photo is by chilombiano from morguefile.

p.s. yes, the title is just begging for a limerick...

Tommy's spot

Here's another painting of Tommy, the pub cat. Here he's in his basket, at the end of the bar, a vantage point from which he can keep an eye on what's going on, and also enjoy plenty of attention from people coming and going. Perfect.

I really liked the photo ref I took for this, but I think the painting ended up a bit overworked once again. Ho hum.

Watercolour, 8" by 10"

Frosty

Here's a pencil drawing of a friend, completed a few weeks back from a photo I snapped.

A4 size (approx 8" by 11").

Redhead 1.1

Having had a bit of feedback from the portrait paintalong, I decided to deepen the shadows further, and did a bit of work on the hair too. A step forwards, or a step back? Personally I think it's punchier, which suits the subject, so I'm happy with it.