Before the Interview, 8" x 11" oil on gessoed cardboard, 2009

With the same methods employed in the last transformation I have painted this piece from one of my best sketches on public transport.

I remember it was an early morning ride from Abbey Wood to London Bridge and there were many delays on the train which helped for more time to sketch this lady.

I have used a limited palette of 3 colours (Cadmium yellow deep, Alizarin Crimson and Winsor blue(red shade) with white) for this piece.

Solitude Satisfaction, 8" x 8", Oil on linen canvas board, 2009

This is another transformation. I sketched this guy a while back and I have always wanted o paint him because of his large turban. Funny enough I am never really pleased with the colour results as much as the sketches.

I have used very direct painting here.

Block by block, section by section without any colour reference but just an experiment of taking the sketches a step further.

1. Transfer the sketch to the canvas board, I enlarged the sketch to the size of the canvas and then rubbed graphite at the back of the paper, then used a pen to make lines which gave me an accurate image.

2. Then starting from the check bone, I worked section by section, painting shapes and blocks of colour, moving along the canvas.

3. Each area was resolved before moving to another, so there was no after-detailing in this method.

4. I only tidying up some edges around the background and profile and called it a day after 2 hours!

Alla Prima is great especially when looking for spontaneous results like this one!