Weathered, Oil on Raw Linen Canvas Board, 8" x 8", 2009

I sketched this very interesting looking man in December 2006. I can't remember much about him, but while looking through some of my archived sketchbooks, he seemed to look weathered by the storms of life!

I have painted this in a technique very commonly known as "Alla Prima"- this is when you start with oil and finish it in one sitting without going back to it. So it has a certain freshness and spontaneous look in the end. Its quite a while I used oil so I struggled a bit.

This was my process

1. I decide to start this without any drawing.

2. I decide to use only 3 colours and white (YELLOW- Yellow Ocher, RED-Terra Rosa, BLUE- Ultramarine Blue.

3. I attack the canvas by just thinking his head was a lump of clay, so, no details just painting shapes in three mass tones.

4. I soften all passages where the three basic tones meet.

5. Then I start sketching into the painting, some of the basic details like eyes, nose and mouth.

6.I make sure I don't over work the details, but add a few smaller strokes where needed to bring out the form.


7. I have a look in reverse through my hand mirror to see where anything has gone wrong.-I correct basic alignments.

8. All through this exercise I have no colour reference, I just wanted this guy to look worn out so I mixed all the three colours into each other as much as possible to get a wide variety of tones and colour temperature shifts.

9. Finally I couldn't resist but sketch into the wet oil with a charcoal pencil to get in some details(his strands of hair )that my impatience with oil will not allow me to do because it drys so slowly.

Retrenched, 10" x 8", Mixed Media on canvas board, 2008

This is another transformation. The original sketch was done in may this year. Again, no colour references but just a love and passion for the human face and its ever changing emotions.


This was totally experimental





1. I first sketched in biro.

2. Then washed the tones in with acrylic

3. Then I sanded it

4. Retained the drawing again in biro.

5. Sanded it again

6. Added more washes in acrylic

7. Then I fixed it- it all went wrong, started bleeding!

8. Then when dry I etch out the lights and forms hit with light with my surgical blade

9. Enhance the drawing lines again

10. Finally do some last bits of etching.

"It's ALL over now.........." 6" x 8", Acrylic on gessoed card, 2008

This is another transformation, I have gone straight with acrylic here for most of this painting.




1. I sketched her face in, with the TOM BOW dual felt pen (dark grey)

2. I then went straight with a direct painting technique of shapes of colours, not paying attention to details ( Broad Brush Strokes)

3. I added detail to the shapes of colours (Smaller Brush Strokes)

4. I tried to recover some of the drawing with Wolff's carbon pencil(4B) that I purposely wanted to show in the final work

Then without the reference sketch, I combine some subtle strokes around the painting with some overstatements in the hair to keep the semi abstract nature of that area alive!

Melachonly II, 6" x 8", oil on gessoed card, 2008

Another transformation. Some of the colour shifts are not believable- anyway that's because I am working form memory and experience, no reference, just a love for the human face and the blessed opportunity to paint it!





This is my first in this series of paintings in oil.

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.

The day after, 8" x 10", Acrylic/Biro on canvas board, 2008

I sketched this guy recently, the 3rd of November as my sketch book reads, so I was still able to capture a bit of his feel in this transformation.






I have gone about this painting in a really systematic form, to help viewers understand my mixed media technique and also to help myself. I also need to understand a bit about my working procedure, which sometimes is quite haphazard and needs a bit of structure for future referencing and teaching purposes.




1. The canvas stained with a neutral colour that suited his overall skin tone
2. The sketch done with a brown fine permanent-ink marker(PITT Artist Pen-Brush nib)
3. Tones added with brown tombow felt markers
4. The details sketched in with black Biro
5. The acrylic added in various strokes blobs and patches just to cover the entire canvas
6. The drawing recovered with a Biro sketch
7. Addition of texture where necessary, using Winsor and Newton Galeria Heavy Structure Gel
8. Re-painting the whole piece with more definite strokes blobs and patches
9. Addition of Biro drawing for some details
10. Final highlights in acrylic with gel and Biro

Stay tuned for more!

The Capped man, 6" x 8", acrylic, 2008

Another transformation.....................I worked a bit lightly here than in others, using the acrylic in a wash like manner.