Shattered! 11" x 13" Mixed Media on pastel paper, 2009

I sketched this guy not too long ago. The date on the sketch says 19th of December, 2008- so that wasn't long ago - still had memories of him.

I really wanted to capture him in a still but tense mood. He was sleeping and most likely snoring- could have been the result of a hard day at work or something else more personal......

I went about this one, thus

1. Start sketching directly with daler rowney hard pastels on dark grey pastel paper.

2. I then add tones with the hard pastels.

3. When I have enough information for a balanced tonal face, I switch to soft pastels

4. With the soft pastels I make the face richer with more colour strokes are added wildly to project the mood.

5. When I have enough colour on the whole surface I re-draw the main features with the Pitt extra soft oil base pencil.

6. Thought I would end this with the chalk pastels but it still lacks the punch I need to see, so I switch to wax crayons.

7. With the wax crayons I can get more permanent marks and it also binds the chalk below.

8. With the wax crayons I feel satisfied and call it quits before the ruin...........

This transformation again is done without any colour reference but just a love and passion for human faces and everything about them!

"Remembering what he told me", 5" x 7", Mixed Media on watercolour board, 2009

This is another transformation, I can vividly remember sketching this girl because I sketched her this month. It was an evening in the train and I was on my way to London Bridge. My eyes just caught her green and black hair.

I have gone about this one as follows.

1. Sketched her face and main features with H pencil (very hard pencil)

2. I then use a wet on wet technique with watercolour to almost finish this piece in watercolour, but when it dries I am not happy with the fussy wet on wet look.

3. Then I decide to add some details with a carbon pencil, still not good!


4. I introduce water resistant wax crayons and I seem to enjoy the intensity and spontaneity it gives the piece

5. I continue working all over the piece with the wax crayons in an excited passionate way, stroking haphazardly.....

6. I throw in some detail around the eyes and mouth with coloured pencils.


7. Then I finish off with some black accents of the carbon pencil again, need to stop as it gets to point I don't know where to put the next stroke!

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.