Fisher Folk

These were painted at Art Class as studies for a piece that I want to paint entitled Fisher Folk.

It is difficult to achieve the range of tonal values in monochrome. The blue works better IMHO.

Suzanne_11November2010

Suzanne was the model and the theme was drawing in the style of other artists.

The first is charcoal and conte in the style of Dufy, i.e. strong black outline, filled with bright colours.

Next is Schiele, i.e. a spidery line with just a few splashes of colour. This was pen with conte.

Finally this was a longer pose. The aim here was to almost merge the figure into the background, in the manner of Seurat. Conte was used again with some chalk and charcoal.

Betty's Tea Service

This was painted at Art Club last week. It is based on a reference photograph set as the Wet Canvas Watercolour Studio Challenge for November. It is painted with St Petersburg w/c paints on Bockingford paper, measuring approx 12" by 8".

Initially I was quite disappointed with it, but now I think it just needs some more work before it is posted on the website.

Harry

This is a portrait of my grandson, Harry. It is an A3 charcoal sketch, from a reference photograph taken at his playgroup.

There is a likeness, but it is Harry in a year or two rather than now! The right eye is too high and there are a number of other problems. Nevertheless, it is a successful trial of a method that is new to me. The paper was first covered with charcoal dust, which was then rubbed with a cloth to give an even mid-tone. Then the darks areas were blocked in with charcoal. The highlights were then "lifted out" with a putty rubber. Finally the details were worked on with finer charcoal strokes.

The effect is very pleasing, and I intend to try this again at the lifedrawing class on Thursday morning.

Cristella_28 October 2010

Cristella was the model last Thursday. The first two warm up exercises in charcoal and pen, are both on A2 sheets.

Sheet 3 was experimentation with various printing implements and acrylic paints. The implements used included sponges, expanded polystyrene, wood, potato and palette knife.

The final A2 sheet was my attempt at painting Cristella in a pose using no pens, pencils or brushes but only the previously listed tools.