After a rough day at work, 8" x 10", oil on canvas board, 2009

This is another transformation of one of my sketches into colour.

I sketched this guy last year on the 14th of June as the date reads and I can't really remember what made me sketch him other than the fact that sleeping commuters are the best-No disturbance and they keep still, with the exception of some drifters!

I went about this one, thus:

1. I got my canvas board primed with neutral grey (white gesso with orange and blue acrylic)

2. I started by sketching his face with a a number 2 sable brush, using the tip of it with some Terra Rosa oil paint.

3. When satisfied with the terra rosa sketch, I just started to paint section by section starting from the eyes and moving right round the face, just like a jigsaw puzzle. The colours used were, titanium white, raw umber, lemon yellow, cadmium yellow, yellow ocher, cadmium orange, cadmium red, alizarin crimson, ultramarine blue, viridian green and chromium oxide. The medium used was oleopasto-impasto liquin.

4. When almost all the face had been completed with the neck, I used the tip of my brush to adjust all meeting planes and edges around the face so that it wouldn't look patchy. e.g where the forehead meets the hair.

5. After adjusting the edges, I run over the whole sketch again with the goal of refining the drawing. Also, just going over the sketch gives room for the face not to look overworked but still maintain a sketchy feel.

6. I struggled with the particular flow of light across the planes of the face, as my reference sketch was quite confusing. But because I have use no colour reference and this is just experimental for me, I go with the flow, hoping that the mistakes might even make the face look interesting!

7. I have a look in the mirror and see some sore spots, I refine them and decide to stop.

8. I didn't want to put any background in this one, just to keep it looking like a work in progress.