Portrait of A. – gridding up.

I finished the tonal study of A. and went straight on to squaring up, transfering a composite of images onto the canvas as one. The jacket and pose from one photo along with the face from another will give me

Portrait of A*.

Sometimes in the life of an artist there comes a time when they just have to terrify passing civilians by asking, “Do you mind if I paint you?” For extra points, you can then tell them why, but that usually

Planning a Painting: First Sketches

Part of the process of making a painting is working out what will go where. Part of the process is working out what shapes it will be, and how the shapes interact. Sketches help with both of those. The first

Personal Critique: Mangling Holiday Pictures – Part 2

Hello and welcome to further critique. Those of you who are following along at home will notice this is not a watercolour but a pencil drawing. Again, there are good parts and issues. I like that combination, because it means

Personal Critique: Mangling Holiday Pictures – Part 1

One of the fans of my art, and someone who has known me from before she knew I could draw, showed me some of her work recently, asking for my thoughts. A direct quote from her: ‘Art lessons at school

Still Life, Roses and Reflections: Day 1

I have adopted this as my next big, slow project. It is a photo from twitter, by Zed Shaw, a programmer and artist. He taught himself to paint, and put the Learn Coding the Hard Way series into the world.

Sketch January 2

Further adventures of Sketch January, including an earring I had not realised I had drawn. Once I get into the habit, it gets easier. The faces and backs are people I know, at the pub. The still life with light