Wednesday 19 November 2008

Love at first sight, 8" x 11", mixed media on watercolour paper, 2008

This is another transformation, a bit different from the norm but all the same a transformation from the sketch to a finished painting.




I sketched this girl way back last year and from my pad- I have written on it-"One of my best shots- I don't always get a good model on the trains but this girl was amazing, she kept that pose all the way from London Bridge to Woolwich Arsenal, a journey of about 20 mins.




To execute this transformation

1. First sketched the girls basic features with my carbon pencil (Wolffs)
2. Then I played around with the essential strokes, patches and blobs of watercolour, blocking in the essential tones
3. Then I draw into it again with the carbon pencil
4. I introduce white gouache, this is due to my lack of patience with the watercolour medium, the gouache gives me the instant lights and is far more forgiving.
5. Then I return to watercolour this time using tombow markers as my watercolour for some vibrancy and spice.
6. I then finish off with some sensitive touches of carbon pencil and white coloured pencil

I notice that part of the painting border that I used to mix the watercolours seemed to work well as part of the painting, so I decided to leave it all in as it is without cropping.

6 comments:

Jennifer A. said...

Wow...and I love your "caption" of the sketch. Looks like love at first sight?

Do you give copies to the people you sketch?

adebanji said...

Well, I don't really know why I gave this piece that title but sometimes as I am working on a piece the title comes to my mind- in this case it was when I introduced the pink on her face that I knew what to call it from the way it made her look.

Yes I do! When I know the sketch is good and solid enough, I show the person and most of the time they give me their e-mail address and I forward it to them. Some have even used their sketch as their face book front picture. Some say they'll just use the sketch to remember the trip, while you get others who say I might be famous tommorow, so they keep it.

Funny.......

Stephen Gardner said...

WOW, I think your work is really strong. thanks for making yourself known to me. I love what your doing.

adebanji said...

Thanks,you are welcome Stephen, this is what the blog community of artists is all about! I really love what you are doing too!

Marian Fortunati said...

is is great, Adebanji.
I like the way you've also done it in watercolor.
Does anybody ever object to being sketched??... or are you pretty subtle when you're doing it??

adebanji said...

Thanks Marian, Where I sit on the train or tube matters alot.

You know people are very suspicious of people looking at them because the society is getting socially unsafe everyday- So I make sure I am not siiting in
a confrontational place or look at people in a suspicious way. This has helped me to appear friendly and commuter friendly.

Hope this helps- for my tips on sketching on public transport you can check my blog with Winsor and Newton on their website -just check under community and you'll see blogs. Check my name and see all the posts I have on sketching in public.