Une Femme Fatale

This is a detail from the large oil painting that is on my easel at the moment.
She is a beautiful but sinister femme fatale type.
I am hoping to get together a good few of these ladies for an exhibition to be organized by my friend Olivier in Paris at some stage in the future.

Two Female Life Studies

I've been digging through some life drawings looking for something suitable for Brian Gallagher's upcoming United Arts Club group exhibition.
Here are a couple that I had on my shortlist.

My August Workshop at Kennedy's

We had a lovely day painting with a terrific group on Saturday at Kennedy Art.
Our model was the lovely Alicja and I have to say I was very impressed by the results our students achieved.

I am looking forward to my next workshop at Kennedy's on September 14th. 

That one is fully booked, but there are some spaces available on my workshop on October 26th.

Contact Kennedy's for information about the workshops. 

ph  + 353 (1) 475 1749

info@kennedyart.com  

Model On A Tiled Floor

I haven't posted this one before either as I wasn't entirely happy with the life painting in it's raw state.
So I have simplified the tonal values and added the checked floor.
The tiled pattern can be a wonderful device for adding interest and depth at the same time.

Life Painting of Karen

I've been hunting through my store of life paintings for some upcoming exhibitions.

This one of Karen is from about three years ago.

I quite like its completeness, but mostly I tend to leave my paintings rougher and more unfinished now.

Workshop News

My next two workshops at Kennedy's are booked out but we have lined up another one on the 26th of October.

If you are coming along to any of my workshops do try to get hold of a set of these brushes. They are super cheap and they have just the right shape, firmness and resilliency for my style of rapid sketch painting.

Contact Kennedy's for information about the workshops.

ph  + 353 (1) 475 1749

info@kennedyart.com  

Don't Use Linseed Oil!

I cover a number of very practical issues to do with oil painting in my workshops. Mostly they are to do with short cuts and work-arounds that I have developed over the years.
Sometimes people ask me about when and how to use linseed oil.
My answer is "Don't!"
I used to use it to blend colours a number of years ago just because it came with the oil painting set that I had gotten for Christmas.
Now I only use quick drying mediums like Liquin.

Here is an example of what can happen if you use linseed oil.
I did this painting of my pal Steve about fourteen years ago.....it's still wet!
Not very wet but it hasn't dried completely so that when it was put into storage against a sheet of paper the paper stuck to it.

Giuseppe Resolved

I fixed up a few things that were bothering me about that painting I did of Giuseppe at my last Portrait Sketch Workshop at Kennedy Art.
Working on a picture when the model is no longer there is not something I ever recommend my students should do. You always tend to loose more in terms of freshness than you make up for in in terms of finish. And, true to form, I have probably overworked this one. 
That said, there were areas that I had noted that needed attention but which I didn't have time to fix during the life session, and it's nice to have resolved those. The dome of the head and the shape of the neck were the main issues.

My workshop in August is booked out and the one on September 14th is booking up fast.
Contact Kennedy's if you'd like to come along to join us for that one. 
Hopefully I will be able to devote more time to the demo element at each of those workshops.

ph  + 353 (1) 475 1749

info@kennedyart.com  

Bustling London...... Final State

Here is a scan of the finished painting which I have tweaked a little bit in Photoshop.
This is very much a picture to be looked at up close so that the viewer gets to scan over the various details and incidents.
It will be the first spread in the book and is very much designed to set the scene, to give a sense of the time and the place for the action to come in the rest of the book.

Bustling London....Almost Done

I've pretty much finished this illustration now.
I have scanned the painting and am giving it a final tweak in Photoshop.
Here are the final three shots of the painting process.