Tuesday, April 26, 2011

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.

Friday, April 22, 2011

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.

Wednesday, April 20, 2011

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.

Monday, April 18, 2011

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.

Monday, April 11, 2011

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.

Thursday, April 7, 2011

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.