My Favourite Paint Brushes

Imagine if the best paint brushes you could buy were also the cheapest you could buy.
It sounds too good to be true, but I haven't found any brushes that are better for a day's life painting than these cheapy ones from Create.
I originally started to use them because using Liquin tends to kill your brushes, and I wanted some that were cheap enough to chuck after one use. (Liquin is the fast-drying medium I use)
However I quickly came to appreciate their sharp edge and firmness. And I found that unlike a lot of more expensive, natural brushes, they really keep their shape after they have been used a few times.
I only use the three flats in the set, and they probably aren't really soft enough for glazing, but I would recommend them to anyone doing a painting session in the life room or an alla prima landscape.
I know this sounds like a really bad, blatant advertisement but I promise you it isn't.



This is a painting I did of Geraldine last Thursday afternoon.
You may notice also that I use the tear-off disposable paper palettes. Again this is because Liquin dries so quickly and so hard that it could easily ruin a nice wooden palette.
The brushes cost less than three Euro for a set of five.
Let me know what you think if you try them.

A Pencil Sketch of Desert Mountains

I don't think that any of my pencil drawings have ever been published in a book, but hopefully the book that I'm working on now will have some.
I had a lot of fun drawing this picture of desert mountains this morning.

Caolán McKeating Lynch wins the Irish Dancing World Championships

I usually stick to painting and illustration in my blog, but when your nephew wins the Irish Dancing World Championships for the second time you've got to brag a bit.
Many many congratulations to Caolán, seen here with his mum Fionnuala.
We are all very proud of you.

A Life Study of Joanna

I like the composition of this life painting of Joanna.
I did it during the afternoon session last week, and I really enjoyed the more natural lighting arrangement we had without the hard edged shadows of the spotlights.

Three heads

Here is a better scan of the portrait study I did of Amanda a few weeks ago.
The same day I did a study of Yuki.
Most of our models are white Europeans, so it made a lovely change to have an African girl and a Japanese boy on the same day.




The third picture here is a quick portrait study I did of Meri, one of our regular models who has now sadly gone back to Catalonia.

Emma Olympia

We now have a second model called Emma, and a little while ago my drawing pal, Una Sealy, set her in the pose of Manet's Olympia. I was lucky to be right in front of the model and so got the perfect view.
I rarely return to work on life paintings but I think I may add a little choker and a few other references to the Manet picture.