Study of David

This was painted for the homework assignment from Art Class - to find a photograph of the head of a statue and paint it in monochrome. I have cheated a bit - David is painted in raw sienna and burnt sienna. The background is a pale wash of cobalt blue, because I wanted the white paper in David to really stand out.

Jean likes it and suggested that we hang it in the bathroom, - praise indeed!

An apple and two lemons

This was an exercise at Art Club this week to paint a still life. I took three lemons and David took three apples, so we had a swap.

The apple and the nearer lemon work OK; the further lemon is a bit weak. There was no time to develop the background further, but I quite like it as it is.

John and another portrait

Both painted as part of the theme on portraiture at art class.

The first is John, who also attends the class. During a fun session today, we were all given a photograph of another member of the class, and given 2 hours to come up with a protrait. It was useful having John there, to check a number of things, and it is a pretty good likeness IMHO.

The second was from a small newspaper cutting supplied by the tutor. Again a pretty good likeness IMHO. Feedback was that the lines of the top of the head and the neck of the tee shirt and too strong.

Vanessa

This portrait of my younger daughter was painted from a reference photograph. It measures 20 cms by 30 cms adn was painted with St Petersburg watercolur paints on Bockingford paper.

My wife thinks it is a good likeness, and even Vanessa concedes it looks like her.

It was well received at Art Class, so I guess this was a success, even it was high risk!

Portrait practice

When we return to class in January, the theme will be based on portraits. These were all painted from reference photographs to try and "get my eye in". They are all small studies approx. 20 cms by 16 cms, and owe a lot to the work of Atlee Harmon. His portraits on Wet Canvas are simply stunning.

Numbers 2 and 3 succeed best in capturing a likeness, but I also like number 4. Only number 1 was overworked and lost the feeling of life, IMHO.