Portrait with 2 doves

This is a reproduction of an original by Jamil Naqsh, a Pakistani painter. I quite enjoyed doing this one and had to let the painting dry full on a number of occasions to get the right effect.

Theo

This is a portrait of a friend's child. I couldn't resist doing a portrait, the first one I've attempted, and I was surprised at how much I enjoyed this. It started off with a cracking photo that was taken during a drinks break in the football match we were playing, with light falling perfectly on to the child. It was the first nice day of the year following a prolonged period of cold and it was great to get out.

I first tackled getting the image as best I could right by constructing a framework using the top part of the nose as the reference point for everything else. Initially I got the background wrong, but it wasn't a big problem as lightening the painting was relatively straightforward. I've seen people do portraits in 2.5 hours that are great, but this was closer to 10.

Please refer to the blog entry on portraiture if you're interested.

Hope you enjoy it.

Old St John's Church

I guess this is a pen and watercolour sketch of St Johns Church. This building has now been taken over by the Arts4every1 group that I'm a member of.

Dolphin chaser

This was taken from an award winning photograph, so I can't take much credit for the composition. If I had my time again I would have gotten the dolphin to break through to the sky area.

Portraiture Inspiration

Hi,

A couple of youtube videos on oil painting/sketching that I though were worth keeping for future reference.  One day I'll have a blog that actually looks cool!

Robert Liberace
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qMv_nOHO_9g


Andrew James R.P.
http://youtu.be/zaSy-cwz9VQ

Mr Elephant

This one was done about 2 years. Nowadays I do much less copying from photos, unless they are ones I've taken myself.

Tired, but happy

A twenty minute sketch of my daughter during a game of football with me and her brother on a wintry day. Had to clear the snow from the basketball court before we could kick a ball!

Saturday chat

Taken from the Arts4every1 session. I arrived late and this was a relatively quick sketch.

Tastertainment March 2013

This is an on location sketch of a performer at what I believe was the second Tastertainment session run by Arts4every1 in high Wycombe. It was very well run and the home made chicken and mushroom soup went down a treat!

Outside Christchurch Cathedral, Oxford

This sketch was done with a permanent sketching pen from a photo taken when we were on our Harry Potter trail around Oxford. I just liked the look of the lantern.