Allegro – brief aside

A few weeks ago I discovered that the Allegro paint surface was cracking, because of one of the paints I had used, Michael Harding’s King’s Blue Deep. Sometimes, shit happens. I went over the sky with a different blue, keeping

Allegro, Day 4

Today’s work on the Allegro was mostly making good on my promises from last time. I had solved most of the problems by the end of day 3, in that I knew where the boat was, what colour the sea

Dragons: Day 3 – the lighting

The dragon cave is going to be made up of receding layers of rock, going back towards the outside, where a dragon is silhouetted. The further back a layer, the earlier I should be painting it, which in this case

Dragons: Day 2 – Watercolour Layout

Today was the first day I’ll be charging my Dragon-loving client. The first days of sketching were on postcards, to get me used to posing dragons; it is unfair to make a client pay for my early efforts, before I

Dragons: Day 1 – Initial Sketching

Last week I brought in a new commission, on the subject of great big winged flying majestic lizards – I’m going to be painting dragons. The client would like to replace a print over her mantelpiece, meaning it’s going to

Allegro, Day 3

Today I added the sky, and the whole painting started pulling together. The sky is cobalt blue with titanium white, fading to a yellowed blue at the bottom for the atmospheric effect. The very lowest bit of the blue has

Allegro, Day 2

The second day of painting on the Allegro was slightly shorter than the first, but as I had folded the sketching time into the first, I can still face my conscience. At the end of the day I had done