Thursday 8 September 2011

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.