20 minute challenge

Here's another 20-minute challenge sketch, some Chinese Lanterns from the garden in a miniature pot. 5" by 7", watercolour and ink.

Olly

As an antidote to the cute boy-with-teddy picture below, I thought I'd try a different ref of my pal's little boy. This is in pencil, and I much prefer it!

A4 (approx 8" by 11").

20 minute challenge

A bit of discipline! I had a look at the blog 'The Twenty Minute Challenge' and thought it'd be a Good Idea - maybe I'll learn to pay attention when I'm drawing! Anyway the idea is to draw/paint something from life, with a non-negotiable 20 minute time limit (no fiddling later either). The value of this, for me, is that it forces me to look hard at what I'm drawing/painting, and simplify what I see.

So here are my first two 20-minuters. Neither are particularly good, but both have been useful in focussing on shapes/contrasts etc. I'm going to try to do these fairly regularly, so hopefully my drawing from life will improve!

Little teddy bear

Here's what I've been up to over the past few days - a portrait of a pal's little boy. Not the greatest of outcomes I'm afraid - it got a bit too 'cute' for my liking! (Maybe if I got rid of the teddy bear...?) And as usual I struggled with the background. Still, I always enjoy painting portraits and this one was no exception.

9" by 13", watercolour with a bit of gouache, from my own ref photo.

Barn owl

Been a bit quiet on the painting front for the start of this month, but here's another watercolour sketch for the bird collection - a beautiful barn owl, from this week's WDE on WetCanvas.

5" by 7", watercolour.