Return of the Living Dead...

...aka my latest self portrait...

A couple of weeks ago I went to an excellent demo by Hashim Akib, having been very kindly invited by fellow arty blogger and all-round lovely lady Pat Elliot (thanks Pat :-)), and this is my first effort, having been well inspired.

It's acrylic on canvas, 10 by 14".

Despite having the appearance of an animated corpse, I'm actually fairly pleased with this. When Hashim Akib did his demo, he started off by laying on paint without any kind of drawing - he then built on this, looking for shapes, shadows and highlights, only getting 'fiddly' (and not too fiddly at that) right at the finish. His portrait style is a lot more colourful than I've managed here, but I was fairly happy with this for a starter. Painted from life (using a mirror) with flat brushes, no drawing. I did have some lovely juicy colours early on but managed to lose them along the way...

So, it's been a confidence booster in that I know I can paint without needing to draw first; for my next attempt I'll aim for something a bit warmer and less deathly!

Year of Painting 3: Koi

The Painting Friends Year of Painting challenge last month was Koi. I decided to try for something delicate.

Watercolour, 5" by 7".

I used a bit of clingfilm to try to get a watery ripply effect, which I think worked OK, but I failed to get the lost edges I had in mind.

Promise of Spring

Here's what I've been up to over the last week or so, a painting to add to Old Man Winter for the 'seasons' series.

Watercolour and ink, using the clingfilm technique.

Quarter sheet, on Fabriano Artistico HP.