Pearl Earring

Oils on Board 18" x 12"

After Vermeer.

One of my favourites so of course I had to paint it.  As usual I have not quite finished, but I'm pleased with how its going. I never thought I would be able to paint it and I always put it off until now. 

This is my first attempt at Girl with the Pearl Earring and it was very hard painting in layers because I am not a patient person and usually paint alla prima.  Quite a learning curve!

I would like to improve the skin tones, but hey, I'm just getting started and still so much to learn!

Self Portrait - Pouring Method

Just experimenting here with watercolour - thought I would try the pouring method to see what I could do with it in portraiture. I think I need more practice!

I am pleased with the hair at this stage (must admit the painting looks better in real life) but I felt I might need to add more of a fleshtone to the face as presently I look kind of bruised. I may do more to it tomorrow, we'll see.

As for likeness.... well, it's getting there I feel, not quite made it yet though. :)

Update - after adding more skintone - I have a slightly healthier glow now!

Australia

Acrylics in watercolour paper 12" x 10"



I am having some difficulty in getting back into painting and so I look to find some interesting challenges to inspire me.

WetCanvas is a good place to start and this challenge is about Australia - my thanks to Stacey for the use of her photo as reference.

I enjoyed doing this and hopefully I will soon rediscover my artistic muse.

Butterfly

Acrylics on deep canvas

Another Try...

Ink on HP paper

As you can see still no likeness, in fact I think I'm losing it totally! Trouble is I rather like this guy, if only I knew where he was. He's so cute.

OK, tomorrow I start getting serious and get down to measuring properly. Let's see if we can nail this one once and for all.

Capturing Cary

Firstly, I apologise to Cary Grant for this abysmal rendering of him. He is my hero and represents for me a true gentleman. I adore his films (mostly because I like looking at him!) and among my favourites are of course An Affair to Remember, Arsenic & Old Lace and The Philadelphia Story. Of course that's just a few because I don't want to bore you with a huge list of my favourite Cary Grant films!

Anyway, back to art... I am trying again with portraits and as you can see by this one I really need to work on getting a likeness. I sure didn't get one this time! I will try again tomorrow and see what happens.

Girl Holding Lemons

Graphite sketch of Girl Holding Lemons

Inspired by the Bouguereau Challenge at WetCanvas (Classical forum) this month.

First of all using graphite I did this preliminary sketch of the painting by the French artist William-Adolphe Bouguereau. I want to do several sketches before I even attempt to paint so that I can work out any difficulties beforehand.

Getting the hands correct was a bit of a problem and I shall have to watch that when I come to paint this. The foreshortening on the hand to the right (or model's left hand!) in particular was awkward and I feel I must study this more thoroughly.

Sorry that the left of the sketch is dark but this is due to poor scan of my sketchbook.

Self Portrait in Acrylics

14" x 10" acrylics on paper

This is the finished self portrait in acrylics. See below for the process of how I got here.

This was a challenge on WetCanvas to produce a self portrait in acrylics and not to display until 20th February, which is why I had to wait until now to reveal!



First the pencil drawing from which I have worked - made myself look chubbier than in real life, but who cares. I will chisel it down a little when I paint.

Transferred the image to watercolour paper 14" x 10" and I also printed the line drawing on a piece of acetate to help later when I need to check if my placements are still correct. When painting I often lose sight of what goes where and the acetate is a real boon when re-establishing the features. When placed over the painting you can see exactly where you went wrong and get back the likeness.

Then painted in acrylics, using the paint very dilute and building in thin transparent layers, which gives a very soft translucent effect very similar to watercolours. Had sooo much trouble with the area under the nose and the neck, but I have to post this image so you can see... it looks so funny. I feel I look like the poisoned dwarf with facial hair - not a good look! LOL. Oh it's good to laugh.



Then I worked more on it, darkened the background, fixed the mouth, lightened the neck and under nose area getting rid of the facial hair and produced the final painting, which I hope is a little better. :)