Scarlet Solitude, Oil on Board, 16" x 20", 2011

Today I was a able sketch a homeless guy I have always wanted to sketch.
Once he agreed I just got my studio to do a quick conversion to colour from the sketch without any reference to a colour reference.

I went about it thus

1. The board I used was given a colouful warm underpainting of light and dark tones.

2. I added liquin to the board to add some resistance, so the colours don't sink.

3. I used the Zorn Palette for this piece, which consists of white, yellow ochre, cadmium red and Ivory black. It's a limited palette but very tonal and powerful!

4. I sketched the head in with mixture of red and back.

5.After which I just painted shape by shape from memory and from the sketch to get a feel of how I saw him today.

6. His face came out a bit longer but I was still happy with the result.

DAZED, 7" x 9.5", Oil on board, 2011

This is another transformation from black and white to colour.

1.I started with a Lightly toned gessoed board,, the colour of the tone was light cream, a mixture I derived from white, yellow ocher and raw umber in acrylic colours.

2. I start to sketch directly with a brush and oil colour slightly diluted, this is a quick colour sketch and I don't plan to spend more than 45 mins. So it's Straight sketching and colour filling as I go along.

3. I start by using a light colour of a mixture that consists of yellow ocher, cadmium red and white, I grey and cool this mixture with a bit of blue. I apply this mixture to all the light planes of the head-forehead Cheeks, jaw, chin....

4. Next I get my dark tone by adding burnt sienna and Ultramarine blue to the mixture above. I apply this to all the dark passages.

5. I then soften the edges between the dark and light passages. and this creates a more solid looking face.

6. I then accentuate the lights and add darker details like nostrils and eye lashes with the tip of a round long sable brush.

7. I then work on the hood by simply starting from the dark side and moving into the light.

8. Then I add the background with some warm and cool browns to create a hazy background to show he is dazed.

9. I just wanted to do this one quickly to capture the guys mood, one that truly caught my attention in a 453 bus last week. I think I finished it in 30 minutes.
I think these colour sketches are good to train one to quickly capture gestures in colour.

LOVE AT FIRST SIGHT II, 8" x 6", mixed media on gessoed card, 2010

This is another transformation of my sketches to colour. I worked from memory with some notes I added on my sketch.

Here I used this sketch as a springboard and went a bit wild with my imagination.

This is how I went about it.

1.I sketched the face on a lightly ochre/brown washed toned surface, with a mixture of Terra Rosa and ultramarine blue.

2. Working this way brings an immediate harmony to the piece as the browns and ochers quickly form a warm colour scheme.

3. Then I used very light washes of skin tones to throw the interplay of light and shade on her face.

4. After this I used a very small sable rigger to put the main features in with delicate touches.

5. Now, I added in the dark "hoody" she had on, and the light beige jacket she was wearing, after this it looked OK and I thought it was fine and finished. I had left the background as the initial wash of ochre/brown, but it didn't bring out her face, there was some sort of clash.

6. So I decided to darken the background, that helped a bit. Then I did a bit of
scratching back with my Biro to enhance some lines and her hair.

7. Then I introduced coloured pencil marks when the piece was touch dry. This helped to spice up the value balance and add a varied mark to the oil brush-strokes.

8. Finally I added more wild strokes with my coloured pencil to spice up the background, so it would have a spontaneous effect that goes along with the title I planned to give the piece.

MISERY, 8" x 8", Mixed Media on Canvas Board, 2010

This is another transformation from black and white to colour, using no colour references but working from memory. What drew me to this man was his interesting features, even though his face looked a bit hardened, there was a bit of beauty in the midst of the storms. I sketched this guy on the 30th of March last month, so his features were still fresh in my mind.

I went about this piece, thus

1. Stain the canvas board with a mixture of burnt sienna and raw umber oil washes

2. When happy with the background staining. I sketch the face in, with my sable brush pointed to give delicate marks of precision.

3. I went on to finish the sketching with oil washes and some thicker paint in the lighter areas, keeping all my colours with a more tonal feel, something I planned to experiment upon.


4. When the oil dried up, I now tried something quite new, I worked back to get the drawing with a ball point pen(bic biro, as I normally call them)I did this also to create some textures and a "etchy feeling" to the surface.

5. After that, I used some brown coloured pencils to add some light and spontaneity to the face, just to create some mood as it was almost lacking a bit of spark.


6. Then it was time to quit before further ruins

MACKY, 9" x 12", Mixed Media on Paper, 2010

This is another transformation from memory.

This time I actually requested to sketch this homeless guy for an agreed price for just 5 minutes.



The sketch looked very brief but I worked on the colour transformation a bit more.

Steps
1. I used a canson orange paper

2. Started sketching with watercolour with a flat sable for the basic parts of this portrait.

3. Start under-painting of the whole face and other features with burnt sienna washes of watercolour and olive green.

4. I introduce chalk pastel with broad strokes all over the face and clothes to block in the initial colours

5.I then move on to wax crayons to add expressive strokes and tie up the structure and harmony of colour all over the piece. I love these wax crayons as they are less messy and reveal more of my passion for linear strokes.

6. I then finish up with a soft black oil base pencil to add more detail and recover some of the drawing that gets lost during the expressive wax technique.

7. Call it quits........

Contemplation, 6.5" x 6.5", Gouache, 2009

This is another transformation purely from memory. I sketched this guy, he must have had a hard day at work. He looked like a builder to me. I loved his face and was quite pleased to get this opportunity to sketch him.

1. Get my museum mountboard and give it an acrylic wash base of cadmium yellow and yellow ocher.

2. I start by placing the main large shapes with my flat sable, no initial drawing in this one.

3. After the main shapes are in place I begin to use a glazing technique to keep laying colours until I get both transparency and opacity in various places as I want.

4.The remaining touches are done to add detail to the main features.

5. I soften the edges around the background by spraying water over the area.

6. I have to stop before this piece gets overworked by the glazing technique.

"Grumpy Joe" 9" x 12", Pastel on gessoed cardboard, 2009

Another transformation. I sketched this guy yesterday, so his image was still fresh in my memory. I was attracted to sketch him because he had a really interesting face, the kind of face I love to sketch. The only problem was that, I was a bit to far away from him and couldn't really get to see his features clearly. Nevertheless I managed to get the most important bits down and when I got to my studio I quickly did this pastel sketch of it. I have also taken a picture of the set up to show how I laid my pastels, with the working area and reference.



I went about working on this piece as follows.

1. Got my gessoeed cardboard primed with white gesso and a neutral grey tint, which was a mixture of ultramarine blue and cadmium orange.

2. I start by running a few colours of pastel across the surface in a haphazard manner, just to break the plainness of the grey tint.

3.I start from the light areas, working on the big shapes first with all the light coloured pastels I feel will work for his skin tones in the light. There's no real formulae to this, I only respond to intuition.

4. Then I move to the darks and repeat the same process as I did for the lights. Its the big shapes first.

5. Now when the big shapes begin to look good, I start drawing into the shapes with my darker coloured pastels to get some of the features in.

6. It generally looks finished at this point and this is how simple 2 tones and some brief sketching basically bring the face forms to life.

7. Just before I wrap it up, I use some soft thin willow charcoal to sketch in some interesting lines and details, just to add some life to his face and that's it!

8. This was purely an experiment and the pastel medium gives one a lot of room to do that.