The BIG ISSUE SELLER Colour version 1

The Colour Version, 8" x 10", Oil on Board, 2012


The post that would be coming up here in the next few months would be how I convert my black and white sketches of Big Issue Sellers to Oil Colour sketches.

Stage 1



Here I sketch in oil the sketch on the board using a grid reference for accurate transfers. The program I use is called Accurasee you can download it for free and it is great for accurate grid scaling. I printed out the sketch to the proportion of the painting I was working on and did the initial sketch with a mixture of vermillion and black. Looking at my palettre you can see I have only 4 colours for this painting. Its a Zorn palette and I love it. I also did the same proportional grid lines on my board.


Stage 2



Here I do the initial broad block-in shapes to cover the whole face. working from larger dark shapes to smaller lighter shapes.


Stage 3



More detail is added, the goal is to draw into the broad shapes with more precise marks.


Final stage



Here, the refining takes place with a round pointed sable number 2. It's at this stage that the main features are refined and all the edges re-adjusted.



The sketch