Girl in a Dress: Day 3

Day 3 of painting was full of little tweaks on the dress and hands, and the long, slow slog of painting stone. Stone slabs have to look flat, be in perspective, and still be interesting. I painted a matrix of

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

Girl in a Dress: Day 2

On the second day of painting, while the dress was still tacky but not wet, I finished off some of the details and began on the face. Immediately, I hit the problem of the strong grounding. When I was mixing

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.

Girl in a Dress: Day 1

Over the summer I painted a Tudor dress with a girl in it. Let me phrase that more appropriately. A client of mine took advantage of an offer and provided a picture to let me expand my portfolio. She pre-bought

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

Sketch January

Over January, I decided to sketch once a day. I have fallen out of the habit of using my sketchbook to remind me of views, and there are far too many pages that are just notes. Here are a few