Tag: portrait

  • A Face Is a Landscape

    A Face Is a Landscape

    Me, my shitty brushes, a sketchbook, and I. Painting profiles are harder than I think, but I enjoyed the way I built this one in a probably unconventional way. More a jigsaw of shapes, starting with swirling mark-making for the hair, and extending from there, than a structured placement. One of my intentions with this…

  • And Home Again

    And Home Again

    I’m home again after a day of mostly packing, travelling, unpacking, laundry and catching up with him indoors. I did squeeze in this portrait sketch, and was amused at the fact that when I have no time I always want to paint for hours, but when I do have hours, I often manage to fritter…

  • Twenty Minute Paint Dash

    Twenty Minute Paint Dash

    There was a lot going on today, and I only managed a twenty minute window for painting. I hate this pose, which means I will be going back to it again until I find what it is I am looking for. The first thing I will be looking for is another hand under that chin,…

  • Handy

    Handy

    Storm Floris was not a pleasant accompaniment to the day, but we appear to have suffered no damage, other than one very upright stem of my very wild rose bush might be broken. I went back to yesterday’s portrait and did some correcting, then hung it with the growing collection of brown paper pieces. When…

  • Get Over It

    Get Over It

    I procrastinated ALL day. I had so many ideas buzzing around in my head, but I just did not make it into the studio to paint until I had thirty minutes until Himself was due home. Ugh. I hate those kind of days. Eventually I rolled out some brown paper and made a mid tone…

  • Slains Fun

    Slains Fun

    More sketchbook practise on a dining table with art supplies limited to a small travel art kit. Later in the day we visited Slain’s Castle for a wander about. Himself hadn’t been there before, so he went off with his camera, engrossed. I went a different way, and climbed one of the spiral staircases that…

  • Teal Thirst

    Teal Thirst

    A dining table art session away from home, followed by some birthday art supplies shopping. I got myself some large brushes, but I won’t be able to use them for a week, because not my carpets. Til the morn, Suzanne 526/600

  • Ode to a Doo

    Ode to a Doo

    This is very much in the formative, ugly stage of whatever it’s going to be, which is very much what could be said about my entire day today. I did not get much sleep, and then when I eventually did get off to sleep, I was rudely awakened by a flippin horny wood pigeon telling…

  • Indigo Shapes

    Indigo Shapes

    Indigo and titanium white three value study. This reference has a very subtle head tilt that I seem to be attracted to in reference photos, and then subconsciously try to straighten things up when I am painting. So much so we know it as the effing David Tennant Tilt in this house 😀 No offense…

  • Slow Shadows

    Slow Shadows

    I’m enjoying this sketchbook practise of value studies. I used some violet acrylic today, and a #4 filbert brush, which is quite a lot softer than my shitty brushes. I often like to work fast, and this practise is much more about slowing down, and being more decisive with my brushstrokes, and it’s definitely a…

  • Three Value Thirst

    Three Value Thirst

    Giving my decrepit shitty brush a rest and pulling out a bright #4 for a value study portrait. I used caput mortuum and some titanium white to create three values on the palette, although I didn’t use much of the white in the end, because I decided to use the sketchbook paper as the lighter…

  • Stumpy Brush

    Stumpy Brush

    One thing that’s not obvious when I post here is the difference in size between one sketch and another. I have a habit of doing these portrait sketches in an A4 sketchbook, but this one is in A3, so twice the size. “Big head, big head, big head” as Chandler would say. My poor little…