Tuesday, July 30, 2013

Bustling London; Three More Process Pictures



Here are three more pictures showing the progress of my Bustling London illustration.
I've begun adding the characters on the streets and a lot more detail all over.

Friday, July 26, 2013

Giuseppe Portrait Sketch

Here are the process photos of my demo at Kennedy Art on Saturday.
I got in a bit less than two hours painting in all.



In it's final state, you can see that I have darkened the skin tones to reflect how the light had changed in the studio. The ideal situation would be to have controlled artificial light that remains constant through the session, but conditions are rarely ideal and artists should be able to cope with changing light as our predecessors did before the advent of electricity.

I felt that I had gotten Giuseppe's neck a bit wrong, so I will tweak it and tidy up the painting when I get a chance.

Tuesday, July 23, 2013

Painting Giuseppe at Kennedy Art

We had a lovely bunch of artists for my Portrait Sketch Workshop at Kennedy Art at the weekend, and happily one of my favourite models, Giuseppe, was able to sit for us.
We all worked very hard in spite of the heat and I am delighted to say that everyone achieved really impressive results.

 We are still having lovely weather here in Dublin so we were able to stroll across to nearby St Stephen's Green for déjeuner sur l'herbe.
Happily, my workshops at Kennedy's are proving to be extremely popular.
I'm told that the next one in August is already booked out (although there's always a chance of a late cancellation) so we have scheduled another one on the 14th September.
Contact Kennedy's if you'd like to come along to that one. 
ph  + 353 (1) 475 1749

info@kennedyart.com  

Friday, July 19, 2013

Bustling London.....Progressing



I'm really enjoying working up my painting of 17th Century London.
Although I did a very detailed drawing for this piece I have been changing elements and adding details as I paint.
Emmersing myself in the life of this late medieval market I find I naturally come up with details or incidents that I hadn't thought of at the drawing stage.
This process is great for my confidence in my technique, especially as I haven't painted in watercolour for a few months.
I had intended that the foreground houses would be all darker in order to show that they were closer to the viewer than the main action, but as I was painting it in, it struck me that I could vary the tone from darkest to lightest to imply that a cloud was passing overhead.

Please note that some of the photos are a bit darker and more contrasty than others depending on the time of day they are shot.

Wednesday, July 17, 2013

Portrait Sketch Workshop at Kennedy Art this Saturday

I am looking forward to my Portrait Sketch Workshop at Kennedy Art this Saturday.
My great pal Giuseppe (above) will be our model for the day.
It's booked out but I will be doing another workshop there on the 24th August. There are still some spaces on that one.
Contact Kennedy's if you'd like to come along. 
ph  + 353 (1) 475 1749
info@kennedyart.com 

Tuesday, July 16, 2013

Bustling London Watercolour

I posted a sketch of Bustling London a little while ago.
It's the first scene from the book I am working on.
Here are a few photos showing how the colour painting of that piece is developing.


I'll post some more as I get on with it.

Friday, July 12, 2013

Life Drawing at the United Arts Club



It was nice to be back at Brian's Life Drawing session at the United Arts Club last night.
We had a wonderful new and statuesque model named Laura.
Here are a couple of my charcoal sketches

Wednesday, July 3, 2013

A Head of Des

Here's a scan of my  painting of Des from the KennedyArt workshop with the background tidied up.
I was able to spend about an hour and a half of the day painting my demo and the rest of the day was spent on one-to-one teaching with the students.
I'm hoping to spend a full two hours on the demo at my next workshop. That one is all booked up but there are places left on the workshop I am doing there in August.
Contact Kennedy's if you would like to join us.
ph  + 353 (1) 475 1749
info@kennedyart.com