Portrait

Here's my latest painting, painted from a photo I took a few months back of my beautiful niece...


Acrylic on acrylic paper, 10" by 14"


I'm pretty please with how this has turned out in the end. I was getting a bit frustrated with it at one point - it was looking a bit bleugh - then I mixed up some purples and started slapping the colour on, and it gave the whole thing a much punchier feel. The likeness is ok, and the anatomy has some issues I think, but really I was having fun trying out the colours.

You can click on the pic for a closer view, as always.

I must admit, I'm stumped for a title for this one. Though maybe 'My muse', as I always seem to be painting the poor girl!

Giraffe, at the zoo

In super-quick time, another little pastel from the zoo residents appears (can you tell I'm having fun with these!)

Another 9ish by 6-ish inch pastel painting on pastelmat paper, from a photo I took at Twycross zoo at the weekend. It's a bit bright, a bit soft, and a bit comical, but it makes me feel cheerful and puts a smile on my face ;-)

Prairie dog pup, at the zoo

Now for something a bit cuter than the last post!

I went last weekend for a visit to Twycross Zoo, in the beautiful English Midlands, and took loads of photos of fab animals. I decided to try out some pastels that I've had lying around for ages, and used a ref of a Black-tailed Prairie Dog pup, almost too cute for it's own good... Pleased with how this turned out, as it was really only an experiment to try out the pastels and some newly acquired pastelmat paper.

I haven't used pastels very much but I enjoyed this, so no doubt I'll be adding some more zoo animals along the way.

Pastel on pastelmat paper, approx 6" by 9"

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.

Year of Painting 2: Still Life

Over on the Painting Friends forum, the Year of Painting has reached month 2. The reference for this month was a still life set-up, and I decided to have a go in acrylics.

Acrylic, 10 by 14"

My version is much simplified from the reference photo - the original had a stripey tablecloth for a start (and that looked way too difficult!). I think I could have been braver with the colours in the white cloth, but I like the texture I managed to get (applying paint with a palette knife), and I like the overall feel of the finished painting.


It was fun to do, as always, and it's great to try out different approaches and subject matter. Though I do think that I prefer painting still lifes from life, rather than from a reference photo, so I'll have to make the effort and set some up I guess...